A large hall in the Lansing Center is filled with a sea of students. The room has many dividers that allow it to break into many smaller rooms, but on this day, each divider is pushed into the wall. The students are sitting grouped with their classmates, each school discernible by their matching t-shirts. One group from Loy Norrix, the yearbook staff, is experiencing their first time at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) competition.
On Monday, April 23, students and their yearbook advisors gathered in East Lansing, Michigan for an annual competition. These students are responsible for creating yearbooks that immortalize high school memories.
This year, Loy Norrix sent the yearbook staff to the competition with their advisor, English teacher, Brianna English. The yearbook staff walked away with 18 individual awards.
Some of the students were surprised by the success of their own work. Junior Rebecca Taplin, who earned three honorable mentions, said, “It feels like I actually accomplished something when I thought I was writing stories that no one would really care about.”
The yearbook won awards for their writing, page design and photography. Yearbook Editor-in-Chief, Connor Wilger, was extremely proud of the staff for the recognition they received. Wilger was also the recipient of multiple awards himself, including a first place award for a people spread, which is a page design featuring students at Loy Norrix.
Wilger said, “Hearing my name called for first place was crazy because I’ve never gotten first place for anything.”
Brianna English is in her fourth year as advisor of the yearbook. English was extremely proud of all her students and said, “It feels amazing. The kids work so hard on creating the yearbook, and it’s great to have someone impartial recognize the work they did.”
The Loy Norrix yearbook was one of 39 total yearbooks entered in the competition. Not only were individual entries submitted, but the entire yearbook was also entered for a ranking on the MIPA scale. In MIPA the scale goes bronze, silver, gold and spartan. Loy Norrix was ranked silver.
List of Awards Received by Loy Norrix Yearbook:
Connor Wilger – 1st place and honorable mention for people spread, 3rd place for academic writing, and honorable mention for feature writing: student life
Nick Loken – 1st place for portrait/personality photo, 2nd place for academic photo, 2nd place for feature presentation, 3rd place and honorable mention for sports feature photo, and honorable mention for sports action photo
Grace Augustine – 2nd place for academic spread, 3rd place for graphics, and honorable mention for academic writing
Olivia Mears – 2nd place for school spirit photo
Rebecca Taplin – honorable mention for sports reporting, sports feature writing, and personality profile
Kristina Hubbel – honorable mention for organizations writing
