Observer staff members who won three New England Newspaper and Press Association awards in the college division contest for work published in 2024-2025. Former Editor-in-Chief Daniela Valdivia-Terres won second place for “Good News.” This is a category for a story about something positive. She wrote about NECC  first generation students on a college visit with PACE.

Staff and correspondents won second place for best arts and entertainment section. Staff includes former Arts and Enterrainment Editor Anthony Sousa. This was awarded to staff and correspondents because the section had a lot of submissions,  even from other staff editors. (Correspondents are any students enrolled in journalism courses. )

Quinlan Cooke and correspondents won third place for best opinion section.

Other winners in these categories include Bowdoin College, University of Vermont, Bates College and Keene State University.

Valdivia-Terres, Sousa and Cooke have now all transferred to other schools. Valdivia-Terres is at Suffolk University and has been interning with the nonprofit Center for News, Technology and Innovation. Sousa is at UMass Lowell and Cooke is at Mount Holyoke, where she has been contributing to the student newspaper. Cooke joined the Observer staff as an Early College student at NECC.