Bella Hedrick
The Hawk-Eye
The Hiawatha High School journalism staff have six students that qualify for the Kansas Scholastic Press Association state competition.
The six competing are senior Maddie Keller, who placed sixth in Feature Writing, senior Kerragan Bachman who placed fifth in Copywriting and feature writing, senior Isabel Burnos who placed third in Review Writing, senior Bella Hedrick who placed fifth in Review Writing, junior Jacob Gallagher who placed sixth for Review Writing, and sophomore Emon Thompson who placed sixth in News Writing. The Hawk-eye staff worked hard and practiced for weeks before the regional competition and it paid off since overall they placed sixth.
The six qualifiers are currently preparing for state competition next week on April 8. This is the first time the staff as a whole has competed in the KSPA competition.
“It is a great honor for not only our class but the journalism program,” Kerragan said. “Placing in not one but two categories feels very accomplished to me. I have always enjoyed journalism, so it’s kind of cool to be able to say I placed fifth in feature writing and sixth in copyediting.”
A lot of the staff are seniors and it is such an honor for them to be able to experience state.
“I was honestly surprised about this accomplishment,” Kerragan said. “But it feels very rewarding to know that my journalism skills have evolved throughout the past two years of being in this class.”
With the competition being so close, it was important for the staff to acknowledge the accomplishment.
“When entering into the KSPA Journalism Contest, it was a lot less stressful than I expected,” Burnos said. “But to be honest, it was a lot of fun also. To be fair though, it could have been the fact that I was just in the classroom rather than going off to a whole different building and being around a bunch of people I haven’t met before but still, nonetheless it was kinda easy for me. Not to say it wasn’t challenging at all, I am a slow typer after all, yet I was a little scared that I wasn’t going to be prepared for it despite going over the practice.”
Most of the staff practiced outside of class to be prepared for the regional competition. With them moving forward, they were more prepared.
“However, I can gladly say that I was very prepared for it,” Burnos said. “And I am very grateful for the fact that Hiawatha even had the privilege to join at all, especially since Hiawatha is a very small community so it can often get overlooked.”
It is a great opportunity for the Hawk-Eye staff because of the lack of the competing over the years and first year they all compete we place, and have six people qualified. Wish the HHS journalism staff luck next Tuesday as they compete.
