Two NC departments win 2023 Kay Phillips Distinguished Service Award

By Michael Messele ’23, East Mecklenburg High School

Two North Carolina college media departments won the 2023 Kay Phillips Distinguished Service Award, an annual award given out to those who demonstrate an exceptional amount of dedication to the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association and to Scholastic journalism across the state of North Carolina. The award shines a light on individuals or institutions that embrace such characteristics.

This year’s Kay Phillips Distinguished Service Award winners recipients are:

Appalachian State Department of Communication, led by Allison Bennett Dyche.
UNC Asheville Department of Mass Communication, led by Michael Gouge.

From NCSMA’s website, “the award was established by the NCSMAA Executive Committee to honor those who have made significant contributions to scholastic journalism in North Carolina and/or to NCSMA. The award is named in honor of Kay Phillips, former director of NCSMA. Each recipient must have contributed at least five years of service to scholastic journalism.”

UNCA and App State take turns hosting regional workshops in the mountains for NCSMA.

The ambassador for UNC Asheville’s Department of Mass Communication is Michael Gouge, a senior lecturer of mass communication at UNC Asheville and the advisor for the student-led newspaper, The Blue Banner. For nearly twenty years, Gouge and UNC Asheville have been connected to NCSMA.

“We wanted to create a workshop for high school media students here in the western part of the state,” Gouge said. “The first workshop had only about 20 students. Our last one had nearly 140.”

Workshops have been a success for student journalists and have made many students inquire about it as a potential career option.

“A few college students majoring in mass communication come up to me and tell me they attended the high school workshop here at UNCA years earlier and decided to pursue a degree here,” Gouge said.

The recognition that the department is receiving is not only a reflection of the University, but of the excellence of the advisors as well.

Allison Bennett Dyche was named Distinguished Adviser in the category of Four-Year Newspaper Adviser by the College Media Association in 2022. Dyche, who also teaches for the department, has won a variety of journalism awards individually for her skills in audio production, advising and leadership.

“This award is really about recognizing student media as a whole and the hard work and excellence teachers, advisers and students put into their media products each year,” Gouge said.