Whether they’re writing, designing or producing content, the journalism program works hard all year capturing the most important moments for everyone to look back on.
Broadcast, newspaper and yearbook won a combined 66 awards from the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC) awards, which is the journalism branch of UIL. Yearbook won 43 awards for this year and last year’s yearbooks, newspaper won 14 awards and broadcast took home nine.

“I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”

Senior Alyssa Fox is the editor-in-chief of the yearbook, as well as a writer for the newspaper. Yearbook awards mostly cover the past year’s yearbook, but a few submissions can be entered from this year’s book as well. Fox took home four awards for last year’s yearbook, one first place for this year’s book and two awards for her work on the newspaper staff.

“I’ve won ILPC awards for every yearbook I’ve worked on,” Fox said. “It was really cool to see spreads and stories win awards that I didn’t think would win. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I can typically tell when something will win an award. But with my college football story in particular, I was very surprised, and it was really cool to see it win an award.”

Junior Jane Yermakov is one of two assistant editors for the newspaper staff. She won three awards for her work on the newspaper staff.

“[Winning an award] was really exciting,” Yermakov said. “It affirmed what I already knew about myself and really boosted my confidence in the work I do. I also know that other staff members got it, so it made me feel really proud of all of us that we achieved on such a big scale.”

Yermakov also received a first place award and a TOPS in Texas for her clubs and organizations story about the football film crew that was included in the yearbook. Entries that win first place in their category in their UIL division are eligible for a TOPS in Texas which is chosen from all of the first place entries from 1A to 6A.

“That was one of my first articles ever,” Yermakov said. “It was a lot of fun to do because I got to talk to a lot of friends about their experiences. I’m glad that other people on staff also received [awards] because I think we all worked really hard this year.”

Junior Mia Morneault works on both the newspaper and broadcast teams. Morneault won four awards in newspaper and one in broadcast, including a TOPS in Texas in both disciplines.

“I was very stoked,” Morneault said. “I wasn’t expecting to do so well, and it was even less expected to get [a TOPS in Texas in both newspaper and broadcast]. I haven’t necessarily been super confident in myself with writing and creating things lately, and getting these awards definitely helped boost my confidence a lot. I feel a lot more confident in my process, my writing and my overall composition of a story, whether through writing or video production, and I think that’s what I’m most proud of.”