Four members of The Flor-Ala staff were honored at the 2015 Southeast Journalism Conference in Atlanta Feb. 26-28.

Judges considered more than 530 entries from 33 universities across the Southeastern U.S. for the honors.

“We are very proud of these awards, especially considering our student journalists are competing against much larger universities like Ole Miss and Louisiana State University,” said UNA Student Media Adviser Scott Morris. “The staff and volunteers at The Flor-Ala work hard and put in long hours each week, and it’s great to see them receive the recognition they have earned.”

Anna Grace Usery, Managing Editor Kali Daniel and Graphic Designer Shilo Cupples won awards for their contributions to journalism during the Best of the South awards banquet Feb. 27. Online Editor Jasmine Fleming also received an honorable mention for her participation in an on-site opinion writing competition.

Usery placed ninth in the Opinion-Editorial Writing category for her “Unreported campus assaults are a call for concern” piece in the Oct. 16, 2014 issue, and “Mental health seminar sheds light on suicide,” which printed September 18, 2014.

Opinion writing allows journalists to use their personal experiences to bring attention to important topics, Usery said.

“Suicide is not talked about, and the first step to combating a problem is talking about it,” she said. “People close to me died by suicide.”

Daniel placed sixth in the Magazine Page Layout Designer competition for her contributions to the 2014 SOAR magazine distributed to potential students and their parents.

Cupples placed fourth in the Best News Graphic Designer category for designs that accompanied “Professor doubles as belly dancer” in the Sept. 4, 2014 issue, “Title IX brings active bystander awareness” in the Nov. 13 issue and the Aug. 28 “Red Zone” story.

Judges’ comments on Cupples’ submissions indicated the belly dance submission was “the best design in the category,” and “a lot of skill and time was put into this.”

Fleming wrote an opinion piece about whether the Atlanta Braves should move to SunTrust Park from Turner Field (see page 4A).

Fleming, News Editor Ashley Remkus, Life Editor Mari Williams and Sports Editor Dustin Pollard represented UNA and The Flor-Ala at the conference.