SU MassCom magna cum laude grad bags campus journ excellence award

Jameela Antoniette I. Mendoza is this year’s winner of the Dionisio T. Baseleres Award for Excellence in Campus Journalism. The Silliman University (SU) magna cum laude graduate received the award during the College of Mass Communication Presentation of Graduates held March 23 at the SU Audio-Visual Theater I.

Jameela Antoniette I. Mendoza (left), Dionisio T. Baseleres Award for Excellence in Campus Journalism awardee, with Dr. Rosario Maxino-Baseleres, former SU College of Mass Communication dean and founder of the Dionisio T. Baseleres Award for Excellence in Campus Journalism.

Before graduating Mendoza was editor-in-chief of the SU student paper the Weekly Sillimanian (tWS). The broadcasting major joined tWS in 2014 during her sophomore year as a photojournalist, and then became its news editor. She also served as a news and feature writer in 2017-2018 after her year-long stint as foreign exchange student in Shikoku Gakuin University, one of SU’s partner universities in Japan.

Mendoza received a gold medal and cash prize of PhP 5,000 from Dr. Rosario M. Baseleres, former dean of SU College of Mass Communication and wife of the late Dionisio T. Baseleres.

The Baseleres family established the award in 2018 in honor of Dionisio T. Baseleres, who was the editor-in-chief of tWS during the Marcos regime and was imprisoned because of his critical views on the Marcos dictatorship. As a practicing journalist in the late 1970s, Baseleres also received death threats as the editor of an anti-Marcos community newspaper in Dipolog City. Despite the threats to his life, he continued to write editorials that exposed anomalies among government officials.

Now on its second year, the award aims to inspire SU journalism students to be fearless in reporting the truth and to stand for the principles of journalism. It is given to a senior mass communication student who has been actively involved as a member of tWS since his or her sophomore year and has written the most number of excellent news stories, in-depth or investigative reports, opinions/ commentaries, and editorials. More credit is given to stories published in community or national newspapers.

Moreover, the candidate must have a major QPA of at least 2.7 as of the first semester of the school year, as certified by the Office of the University Registrar. Selection of the awardee is done by a special committee formed by the dean of the College of Mass Communication and composed of members of the faculty and the College Secretary.