Seven students from Manhattan High School’s award-winning journalism program placed in Saturday’s state-level competition sponsored by the Kansas Scholastic Press Association at the University of Kansas.
The students were among the 1,275 entries that qualified from 2,523 contestants at the six regionals conducted around Kansas in February. KSPA journalism contests span 19 categories at regionals and 21 categories at state. MHS was one of 85 Kansas schools with students in the state contest.
The students who placed at state were Angie Moss, senior, honorable mention in News Writing; Johnathon Ostermann, junior, honorable mention in Yearbook Sports; Jordan Lutz, senior, honorable mention in Yearbook Sports; Megan Klug, junior, third place in Yearbook Theme and Graphics; and the team of Ostermann and seniors Chandler Mixon, Hans Ahorro and Gavin Larios, honorable mention in Multimedia Storytelling.
These students are among the staff of “The Mentor,” the weekly student newspaper; “Blue M,” the annual yearbook; www.mhsmentor.com, the online newspaper; and Indian Insider video productions. The 2016-2017 volume of the newspaper was recently announced as an All-Kansas publication by the KSPA and the staff was awarded a plaque at the state contest opening session. “The Mentor” is advised by Kristy Nyp, journalism teacher. Moss serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the print publication.
The All-Kansas designation is the top award KSPA bestows upon student publications, honoring newspapers, news websites, video productions and yearbooks across the state. Nominees are evaluated against a rubric measuring quality in the areas of coverage, reporting, visuals, design and leadership. This year KSPA judges critiqued 37 publications and awarded 20 All-Kansas awards in the newspaper category. Manhattan High School was one of only eight 6A school newspapers to receive the award this year. The critiques were submitted in early March and were announced on the KSPA website, www.kspaonline.org, on April 25.
Earlier this year “The Mentor” and “Blue M” both received the All-American distinction for the 2015-2016 seasons from the National Scholastic Press Association. Additionally, 10 of the student entries in KSPA’s Story/Design/Photo of the Month contests have won awards, with one more month of contest yet to be announced for the year, and three students placed in the Journalism Education Association’s national Write-Off contest at the national convention in Indianapolis in November.