Nancy Dupont
OXFORD, Miss. – The Mississippi Scholastic Press Association board of advisers has unanimously approved a request by the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media to rename its Broadcast Adviser of the Year award in honor of Nancy Dupont.
Dupont, who joined the Ole Miss journalism faculty in 2006, recently announced that she is retiring at the end of the spring semester.
“Dr. Dupont is a highly-decorated journalism educator and the longtime faculty adviser for the award-winning ‘NewsWatch,’ UM’s daily, live student-run news broadcast,” said R.J. Morgan, MSPA director. “Throughout her career, Dr. Dupont has been a friend to scholastic journalism and a mentor to generations of young communicators.
“As such, she embodies both the spirit and substance of those educators our adviser of the year awards seek to honor, and I think I speak for the entire board when I say we are incredibly excited to have her name attached to this honor going forward.”
Morgan, who was the first recipient of the award, said it has been around since 2011. It honors the state’s best high school broadcast adviser for the current school year and was previously unnamed. The association’s newspaper and yearbook awards were both already named for other educators before he took over in 2013, he said.
The selection process begins in January, when brief statements of nomination are accepted from students, colleagues and others, then narrowed to five finalists. Those finalists submit a pair of short essays describing their successes and struggles in the classroom over the last year, their philosophy of education and value of high school media for further judging.
The winner is announced at the spring convention. This year’s convention is slated to be conducted virtually April 9. Dupont will be involved in the judging process.
This year’s finalists are:
- Margaret Falatko, Desoto Central High School
- Terry Cassreino, St. Joseph Catholic School
- Keith Scruggs, Oxford High School
- Katie Lewis, Northwest Rankin High School
- Katrina Berry-Ivy, Tupelo High School