The publication staff’s hands were fully numb from clapping at the end of the Southern Illinois School Press Association competition on Wednesday.
After placing in 40 journalistic events, the EHS yearbook and claw staff went home with 20 first-place awards.
“It was incredibly rewarding watching everyone go up and grab their awards for pieces of work they put so much effort in,” senior Pera Onal, newspaper editor-in-chief, said. “It definitely got a little emotional.”
After a series of on-site competitions, nine journalism students went home with awards, six of those being first-place finishes.
“The on-site session was a lot different than just writing a Claw piece at home,” senior Georgia Gaughan, newspaper student-life editor, said. “Between the time restrictions and limited resources, there was definitely a lot more pressure on this.”
Gaughan competed in Feature Writing at the SISPA on-site competition but received accolades for Alternative Story Telling, News Story and Best Editorial. Although students were able to compete at the site itself, editors and advisers of both publications were able to nominate previously published stories, designs and photos.
“Even though I wasn’t able to be there, it felt nice to be recognized for pieces I had written previously,” Sydney Andrews said.
Andrews had a clean sweep in both of her categories, News Story and Humor Column.
After submitting two of her Claw pieces in the Humor Column, Andrews earned first and second place in the category, with a first-place finish alongside Gaughan in News Story Writing.
“We all did really well,” senior Sydney Chong, yearbook managing editor, said. “I feel like the number of awards we won shows that.”
Awards:
Best Web Adviser – Mrs. Thrun
Golden Dozen Award–2023 yearbook
Blue Banner – Print – 1st
Yearbook Club spread – Zach Kennett & Owen Anderson- 2nd
Student Life spread – Veda – 1st – Zach Kennett & Heloisa Passoni De Lima- 2nd
Academics spread- Veda Kommineni & Gia Pettus- 1st
Yearbooks Sports Copy – Zach Kennett- 2nd
Editorial Cartoon – Colleen M. Moore – 1st
Center Spread – Zach Cohn and Veda Kommineni- 1st
Front page – Sami McKenney – 1st
Sports Photo – Reyez Hangsleben- 2nd
Humor Column – Sydney Andrews- 1st – 2nd
Newspaper Feature – Colleen M. Moore- 1st
Sports Column – Zach Cohn – 3rd
Editorial – Georgia Gaughan- 2nd – Sami McKenney – 1st
Computer Graphic – Zach Kennett – 2nd
News Story – Sydney Andrews & Georgia Gaughan – 1st – Colleen M. Moore – 2nd
Art – Sydney Chong – 3rd – 1st
Review – Owen Anderson- 2nd – Zach Kennett- 1st
Sports News- Sami McKenney- 1st
Sports Feature – Veda Kommineni – 2nd – Pera Onal- 1st
Magazine Ad – Veda Kommineni- 2nd
Website Feature – Sami McKenney- 1st
Website Sports – Pera Onal- 2nd
Sports Feature – Zach Cohn – 2nd
Alternative Storytelling – Georgia Gaughan- 3rd
On Site Contests:
Editorial Cartoon – Sydney Chong – 1st
Yearbook Caption Writing – Logan Szymanski- 1st
Feature Writing- Georgia Gaughan- 3rd – Sami McKenney- 2nd
Editorial Writing- Alyssa Ragsdale – 1st
Infographic – Veda Kommineni- 1st
Photography – Reyez Hangsleben- 1st
Copy Editing – Julia Towell- 1st
Yearbook Sports Writing- Sean Henson – 3rd
Review Writing- Owen Anderson- 3rd