In a national journalism competition, seven employees of The Pitt News won a total of nine awards for work from the 2015-2016 academic year.

The competition, Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 2016 Gold Circle Awards, recognizes “superior” work in student journalism at schools nationwide and schools overseas that follow an American curriculum.

TPN staff won awards, which were announced on Wednesday, for opinions columns, sports columns, features and photography covering topics from diversity and sexuality to football.

• Opinions columnist Marlo Safi won first place in the category Alternative Story Form for her Q&A with Jackie Fuchs.

• Safi also won a certificate of merit in the category Personal Opinion: Off-campus Issues for her column “Support Arab Women.”

• Also in the Personal Opinion: Off Campus Issues category, Matthew Moret, assistant opinions editor, won a certificate of merit for his column “Don’t Let the Airstrike Fly Under the Radar.”

• Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Lepro won two certificates of merit –– one in the Sports Commentary category for her column “Football is So Gay,” and another in the General Feature category for her story “Diversity Includes Disability.”

• On the visual side of the paper, former senior staff illustrator Victor Gonzalez won a certificate of merit in the category Cartoons for his cartoon “Who Makes a Better James Bond?”
• Senior staff photographer Theo Schwarz won a certificate of merit in the Single Feature Photograph category for his photo “Buc’s Life for Me.”

• In the category Single Spot News Photography, staff photographer Abigail Self won third place for her photograph “Hello Milo” and senior staff photographer Wenhao Wu won a certificate of merit for his photograph “Not a Criminal.”