Francis Howell North's Kelsey Bell and principal Darlene Jones celebrate Bell being announced MIPA's Student Journalist of the Year

The Missouri Interscholastic Press Association is honored to announce that Kelsey Bell, a senior at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, is the 2011-12 Student Journalist of the Year.

Bell has been a member of the North Star newspaper at FHN for three years and intends to pursue magazine journalism after graduating in June. MIPA has previously recognized her work and Bell earned fourth place in NSPA’s Ilustration of the Year competition in 2011 won a first place award for her interactive graphic in CSPA’s Gold Circle competition.

In his selection of Kelsey as the SJOY, judge Rod Howe said of Kelsey’s graphic design work: “Kelsey’s designs and graphics examples were the most amazing and professional pieces of scholastic journalism I have viewed in my 30 years of advising. In my years of judging your SJOY entries, I believe this collection was the most impressive and, thus, the most challenging. High school journalism is alive and well in Missouri.”

Kelsey will be honored at Scholastic Journalism Day on April 4 and her submission materials will be forwarded on to the national Student Journalist of the Year in Seattle on April 12.

Runners up in this year’s competition were Stefani Bradley of Winnetonka High School and Alison Dunaway of Francis Howell High School. Of Bradley’s work, Mr. Howe said she was “very professional, talented in broadcast media; her poise is extraordinary.” Of Dunaway’s work, Mr. Howe said there was a “great variety of work, excellent quality.”

Broadcast Write Off Contest Instructions

Editorial Cartoon Contest Instructions

Editorial Write Off Contest Instructions

Feature Write Off Contest Instructions

News Write Off Contest Instructions

Review Write Off Contest Instructions

MIPA would like to announce Morgan Said, the senior editor-in-chief of The Dart newspaper and DartNewsOnline.com at St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City, as the Missouri Student Journalist of the Year.

Through a surprise announcement in front of her classmates and family, St. Teresa’s Academy senior Morgan Said found out that she had been named Missouri Student Journalist of the Year 2011 Monday, March 21, 2011.  The award, sponsored by the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association, will be formally presented at an awards ceremony at the University of Missouri April 5.

Morgan serves as editor-in-chief of St. Teresa’s print newspaper, The Dart, and the school’s online new site, DartNewsOnline.  In the summer of 2010, Morgan helped start DartNewsOnline, which won the coveted Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association, placing it in the top 20 student news websites in the nation.

In a letter of nomination, her newspaper adviser Eric Thomas wrote, “In my nine years of teaching at St. Teresa’s, after teaching hundreds of students, after dozens of yearbook and newspaper editors-in-chief, I have never been more proud of a student than I am of Morgan Said.  When challenged, she directs her energy into the soul of the publication: helping others.  When others might wilt from both exhaustion and frustration, Morgan keeps creating excellence for her staff.”

Under Morgan’s leadership, in November 2011, the online and print publications earned three Best in Show awards at the NSPA convention in Kansas City.  STA publications had never before won any Best in Show awards from NSPA.

During her three years on staff, Morgan has earned staff, regional and state awards for individual work in photography, video and writing.  For the print version of the paper she writes “300 words,” a series of profiles of St. Teresa’s personalities and their defining moments.  In summer 2010, Morgan won an award for leadership at the Ball State Summer Journalism Workshops.

In winning the Missouri contest, Morgan’s entry will advance to the judging for national journalist of the year.  The announcement of that award, and the accompanying $5,000 possible scholarship, occurs at the NSPA/JEA Convention in Anaheim, Calif. on April 16.

Morgan intends to major in strategic communications at the University of Kansas.

Again, we congratulate and thank Dr. Holley for being a steadfast supporter of scholastic journalism in his role as principal at Kirkwood High School.

Below are links for Scholastic Journalism Day registration forms. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Matt Schott at matthew.schott@fhsdschools.org or Ben Merithew at ben_merithew@indep.k12.mo.us or Erica Lovercamp at lovercampe@missouri.edu

J-Day Registration Form 11

The contest materials are now available for download!

Please note that the submission requirements for this year have changed a bit.

• The biggest change? Students and advisers will attach an entry form — provided by MIPA in the packet — with each entry, rather than creating your own entry form.
• How will judging change? We have added rubrics to the contest materials section of the website.  While you DO NOT need to attach any rubrics to the entries, you can at least see some preliminary criteria that will be used to determine winners.
• What about questions? Please forward questions about membership to Doris Barnhart barnhartd@missouri.edu; questions about judges to Stephanie Carey scareymipa@gmail.com; and questions about contest materials to Eric Thomas ethomas@stteresasacademy.org.

Good luck to all competitors.  See you at JDay!

We moved from building the site in Dreamweaver to the CMS WordPress. This change was done to make the site look a bit more professional and to allow members access to the site to make updates when they want.

Members in good standing who would like access to add postings to the site need to contact Webmaster Aaron Manfull and he will get you the information you need. Hope you find the new site helpful. Our goal for it is to keep you updated with MIPA news. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or questions.