The Merciad has won two awards in the 2018 Student Keystone Press Awards contest, sponsored by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.

Merciad staff writer Marina Boyle, a freshman Business and Competitive Intelligence major from Dublin, Ireland, won a first-place award in the Column category for three opinion pieces: “Roommates make or break the year,” “New water bottle stations bring joy” and “Educational SAC/MAC events a must.”

The Merciad staff won a second-place award in the Layout and Design category for the cover of the Nov. 8 issue, featuring the university production of “Guys and Dolls.” The photo was contributed by Mark Santillano, assistant professor of Dance.

The Merciad competes with other four-year universities statewide with enrollment under 10,000 students.

This is the third consecutive year for the Merciad to receive awards in the Student Keystone contest. The Merciad captured a first-place award in the Review category in 2017 and a second-place award in the Editorial category in 2016.

Mercyhurst wasn’t the only Erie County university to be recognized in this year’s Student Keystone Awards contest: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania’s Spectator and Gannon University’s Gannon Knight each received an honorable mention.