(Badin, N.C.) The Outdoor Journalist Education Foundation of America (OJEFA) is pleased to announce that Daniel Adrien of Macon, Georgia, and Ben Zino of Salisbury, North Carolina, have been selected to receive the 2018 Toyota “Let’s Go Places” awards. The two college students will attend the annual fall conference of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) in Florence, S.C., to learn about all aspects of outdoor communications from the people who work in the field every day. The Toyota “Let’s Go Places” awards include conference registration, meals, lodging and travel expenses. 

“Conferences offer opportunities that can only be found face-to-face,” said Lisa Snuggs, SEOPA executive director and OJEFA CEO, “and we are thrilled to have Toyota’s support to help make that happen for up-and-coming outdoors communicators.” These young men, along with Lindsay Sale-Tinney Award winner Collin Riley from Paynesville, Minn., will meet industry icons, attend seminars and hands-on workshops, and learn about the various career options in outdoor communications.  

Daniel Adrien, who was a close runner-up for the 2017 Lindsay Sale-Tinney Award, will graduate Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Ga., later this year with a major in Marketing and a minor in Environmental Science. Adrien is an Eagle Scout who loves to go fishing with his little brother Eli. 

Ben Zino is a SEOPA apprentice member who is passionate about backyard ecosystem conservation. He currently films, edits and produces educational wildlife videos for his YouTube channel called “The Wild Report” (www.youtube.com/c/thewildreportofficial) and promotes wildlife preservation through his website (www.backyardwildlife.org).  He is a freshman at North Carolina State University, where he plans to study Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation. 

To learn more about the SEOPA conference and see the agenda, please visit https://www.seopa.org/2018-annual-fall-conference.

About SEOPA:  The Southeastern Outdoor Press Association, Inc., has been helping outdoor communicators and allied industry representatives excel in their professions since 1964. For more information visit seopa.org.

About OJEFA:  The Outdoor Journalist Education Foundation of America, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established by the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association in 2004 to further education, research and network opportunities in the field of outdoor journalism for students, active outdoor journalists and outdoor journalist organizations. For more information visit OJEFA.

Contact:  Lisa Snuggs, SEOPA Executive Director/ OJEFA CEO, lisa@seopa.org, 704-961-7614