Here are reminders about national Society of Professional Journalists and Colorado Pro Chapter opportunities for college journalism students. This information was sent to college journalism directors and SPJ student chapter advisers in November before the Thanksgiving break. We want to distribute this again now before the start of spring semester.

Jan. 23 is the deadline for students to submit entries in the annual collegiate journalism Mark of Excellence contest. This is the first year entries will be accepted only online. Contest rules and information for print, radio, television and online categories can be found at http://www.spj.org/a-moe.asp.

Jan. 31 is the application deadline for print and broadcast scholarships from the Colorado Pro Chapter. Scholarship fliers were distributed during our campus visits last fall. Click the Scholarships tab above for more information. The Colorado chapter annually funds the Helen Verba scholarship for print students and the Sheldon Peterson scholarship for broadcast students. Last year, seven students received scholarships.

Leticia Steffen is the scholarship committee chair. Her contact information is included in the scholarship application information.

The 2015 Region 9 conference will be April 24-25 on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver. The Auraria SPJ student chapter and the Colorado Pro Chapter are cohosting the event. Colorado college students will be joined by students from Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming at the annual event. We’ll have sessions all day Friday and Saturday morning. The MOE awards luncheon on Saturday will be followed by résumé critique and mentoring sessions that afternoon.

More information about the sessions and speakers will be sent in February to college journalism program directors, SPJ student chapter officers and advisers.