By Erin Roberts, roberte1@ohio.edu

ATHENS, Ohio (Aug. 31, 2009)—Ohio University’s student chapter of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has been named the 2009 Outstanding Student Chapter by the NPPA Awards and Recognitions committee for the fourth consecutive year.

“The chapter earned the award for its outstanding participation with more than 80 members,” said committee chairman Tony Overman. “Their campus involvement includes regular meetings, educational workshops, guest speakers, social events and newly created activities like the student mentor program, a chapter booth at freshman orientation and a member-exclusive Facebook group.”

School of Visual Communication Director Terry Eiler credits the group’s adviser and officers for the win.

“A ‘four-peat’ as the leading NPPA student program is simply unbelievable,” Eiler said. “This is an award of the remarkable work of Marcy Nighswander, the faculty adviser, and drive of the students that clearly believe in the importance of an active role in professional groups while in college. This marks both the excellence of the program and the student leadership in the program.”

Nighswander, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and VisCom professor, said the officers’ work on a variety of events make NPPAOU a fixture for all VisCom students.

“Each year the officers of NPPAOU add new activities to help the VisCom students prepare for their photojournalism careers,” she said. “This year they started social networking on Facebook as another way to connect not only with our current students but also with alumni and students at other universities who travelled to Ohio University to take part in the activities.”

In addition, Nighswander said officers added workshops on internships and grant writing and hosted expert speakers from across the university as well as outside of Athens.

This year’s officers included Diego James Robles, president; Alex Snyder, vice president and president-elect; Julia Van Wagenen, treasurer; and Meaghan Spann, secretary.

Due to an oversight the Outstanding Student Chapter award was not announced in June in Las Vegas when NPPA's other annual honors were announced during the yearly banquet, but was announced by the organization in early August.

To learn more about NPPA, please visit www.nppa.org.