MUNCIE, Ind. - Students in Ball State University's Center for Information and Communication Sciences captured all three finalist positions in a national graduate student paper competition sponsored by the International Communication Association (ICA).

The annual paper competition is designed to spotlight and reward exceptional student work that is of value to the user industry in "real world" situations.

The Ball State students competed against more than 60 submitted papers from 33 ICA-affiliated campuses.

Amy Errington, Park City, Vt., was named ICA Graduate Student of the Year with her first-place paper "Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): Internet Access Anywhere, Anytime." A $1,000 scholarship was given to Ball State in her honor.

The two other finalists were Jennifer Early, Pittsburgh, with her paper "Virtual Private Networks: A Business Case for Remote Access," and Seneca Suter, Ann Arbor, Mich., who wrote "An Evolution of Technology: Wireless Internet."

All three students won trips to the national conference held in Atlanta June 2-3 and a $750 cash award.

The Ball State master's program in information and communication sciences is an interdisciplinary program teaching students to develop, design and manage solutions to information and communication problems.

The ICA has rated Ball State's program one of the top three in the nation and cited its curriculum as a model.

By Lori Rader, Communications Manager