Collegiate Writer Destined For National Success
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A young man with deep Du Quoin roots is quickly making a name for himself in the world of journalism. Stile T. Smith just completed his freshman year at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and has already earned recognition for his talents.
Smith is the Outstanding Newsroom Rookie of the Year for the Daily Egyptian, the University's student newspaper. Smith's beat was quite diverse and found him covering everything from women's volleyball to undergraduate student government to Saluki Way as well as other campus activities and sports.
In addition, he was the winner this spring of the Steven Hahn Memorial Scholarship, payable for $1,600 during the 2009-2010 academic school year at SIUC. He's the recipient of an SIUC Dean's Scholarship worth $6,000 his first two years at the University.
Smith, from Irvington, Illinois, is the grandson of Roy and Carolyn Smith of Du Quoin. He is the son of Du Quoin native Roy "Smitty" Smith Jr. and wife, Angela of Irvington, Delores and Tom Guymon of Centralia and the grandson of Edna Thompson of Centralia.
A well-rounded young man, Stile maintained a 3.448 GPA his freshman year at Southern. That's not surprising since he graduated in the top 10 percent of his class at Centralia High School in 2008 with a GPA exceeding 3.5.
His literary career began at Centralia where he wrote Centralia High School athletic team online columns. "Sports with Stile" featured a variety of interviews he conducted with school coaches. In addition, he was responsible for content in the quarterly CHS newsletter, dispersed by the school with student report cards. He also crafted CHS press releases for the Centralia Sentinel.
While at CHS, Smith's athletic prowess was notable as well. During his senior year, this basketball team co-captain earned first team All-South Seven honors and earned a spot on the All-Southern Illinois team. He was also Senior prom king, treasurer of the National Honor Society, member of the Centralia High School Student Council, May Fete freshman attendant, and as a junior competed in cross-country.
Further honing his craft, Smith is serving a 2009 summer internship doing what he likes most- working in sports journalism. He's interning with the Southern Illinois Miners. Job responsibilities include listening to away games and attending home games, maintaining close to real time online blogs and "Tweets" of game action. He interviews coaches and players for printed online media, interviews players for online videos, and also writes all other online team info for the popular regional baseball team.
After completing his education, Smith aspires to work as a newspaper or magazine sports reporter. Ultimately, he'd love to find himself employed as a reporter for "Sports Illustrated" or "ESPN The Magazine."