THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas won 30 awards in the 11th edition of the Student Quill Awards, which honors exemplary work in communication research, programs, skills and creativity.
The Flame, the official student publication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, was among the four UST organizations and publications that won plums in the awards program.
One of its two winning entries was the in-depth report, “From streets to sheets: Motorcycle drivers ride on sex work as they traverse hard times,” which won in the writing category.
The story allowed The Flame to make history as the first campus publication from Asia to secure the top spot in the in-depth category’s regional division of the 2024 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.
The piece looked into the experiences of motorcycle taxi drivers offering sexual services to ease financial woes. It was written by The Flame editor-in-chief Zoe Airabelle Aguinaldo, associate editor Joss Gabriel Oliveros, and staffers Jianzen Deananeas and Ma. Alyanna Selda.
The Flame’s literary folio Dapitan: Panopticon, which tackles themes of surveillance and imprisonment, also reaped an accolade in the publications category.
The three other Thomasian entities that were recognized in the latest Student Quill Awards were the Tiger Media Network, the official broadcasting arm of UST, which bagged 13 plums; The Varsitarian, the University’s official campus publication, which won six awards; media production organization TOMCAT, which reaped three plums and online portal TomasinoWeb, which got two accolades.
Four projects under the Department of Communication also bagged four awards.
The awarding ceremony will be held at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel on Aug. 27. F
