LHU President Keith T. Miller (far left) joins Outstanding Communication Media Graduate and featured speaker Robert J. Yoegel (second from right) in congratulating awards winners at the 2009 Rebecca F. Gross Day awards program. Between Miller and Yoegel are (l to r) Marcelle Stoppay and Amanda Alexander. Patty Cozzi, far right, accepted an award on behalf of her daughter Nicole.

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Outstanding Lock Haven University students in Communication Media received awards at the 2009 Rebecca F. Gross Awards Day ceremony on April 24. The event also featured a keynote address by an outstanding LHU Communication Media graduate.

Professor Karen Kline presented the Rebecca Gross Student Award to senior Amanda Alexander. The Rebecca Gross Award for the outstanding student in the Communication Media discipline is based on three criteria: grade-point average, service to the student media, and other media activities.

Alexander has been involved with the Eagle Eye, the weekly LHU student newspaper, for the last two years. She has also worked for the LHU Career Services office. Last summer, during her internship with the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Alexander wrote a weekly column. She has also covered school board, city council and county commissioner meetings for the Renovo Record and local business for the Lock Haven Express.

Associate Professor Sharon B. Stringer presented the Dr. Saundra K. Hybels Scholarships to sophomore Nicole Cozzi, junior Danielle Burkhart, and senior Marcelle Stoppay. Burkhart also received the Margaret Ann Brown Memorial Scholarship.
Robert J. Yoegel, vice president of online services for North American Publishing Company, delivered the keynote address in which he urged the students “Don’t be who everyone else is. Be who no one else is.” Yoegel traced his career from his days as a Lock Haven University student to his present position. He said that he took chances in moving from traditional print media to the emerging e-media.

North American Publishing Company produces 16 magazines and 15 e-newsletters. At NAPCO, Yoegel leads the online division with more than $125 million in annual revenue and 100,000 subscribers. Yoegel spoke about the consolidation of media and observed that today “everyone is a publisher.” In this environment, students need to “strike out and be who no one else is.” In his final words of advice, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

LHU President Keith T. Miller delivered introductory remarks and congratulated the awards recipients.

The Rebecca F. Gross Award honors one of Pennsylvania’s most distinguished journalists and public servants. A 1928 graduate of Penn State University, Gross served as managing editor of the Lock Haven Express, founding member and president of the Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association; president of the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and the Pennsylvania Associated Press; Commander in the U.S. Navy; Nieman Fellow at Harvard University; and member of the Lock Haven University Board of Trustees, the Board of State Colleges and Universities Directors, and the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.