![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 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.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
CPHS photographer takes home People’s Choice Award
Senior Kaity Dawson takes home People’s Choice Award at Round Rock Art Council with her picture entitled “Boots.”
April 14, 2016
There is no question that Cedar Park High school is home to some talented students, one of those students being senior Kaity Dawson. Dawson started getting interested in photography a little over a year ago, and from there her passion seemed to take off, leading to her forming her own photography business, and winning awards such as the People’s Choice Award at Round Rock Art Council.
“I started getting interested in photography about a year and a half ago now,” Dawson said. “The more I started taking pictures, the more I started realizing how much I loved it.”
The Round Rock Art Council held several talented artists, presenting a multitude of different medium, from painting and drawing, to photography and 3D sculpture. This year Dawson presented a piece titled “Boots.”
“My piece was a photo I took earlier this year called ‘Boots,’” Dawson said. “Which was basically a picture of these really old looking boots standing in the middle of a pathway surrounded by a lot of yellow flowers. It’s definitely one of my favorite photos.”
Dawson stated that the reason the picture was so special was the fact that it wasn’t a portrait shot, which is what she usually takes.
“I think the picture tells a story about a journey,” Dawson said. “My favorite aspect of photography is getting to shoot and use different ideas that I thought of and making them my own, which is an amazing feeling.”
While photography is Dawson’s true passion, according to her it doesn’t come without its trials.
“My least favorite part is trying to find outfits for my models to wear for shoots,” Dawson said. “Usually the ideas I have require some old dress or something kind of out of the ordinary.”
Along with winning her People’s Choice Award for her photography, Dawson was also awarded five Gold Keys at the Scholastic Art awards; a Gold Key is the highest level of achievement a student can receive at the regional level.
“I’ve always loved doing art in general,” Dawson said. “Over time I think I’ve realized that photography is my true passion. It’s my way of expressing myself and my feelings in a way that I know I am uniquely showing them.”
