2007-08 A Cut Above, Newspaper

a cutabove

The Best of the Best from the 2007-2008 Individual Category Newspaper Contest

Michigan Interscholastic Press Association

Published by Michigan Interscholastic Press Association305 Communication Arts Building

Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI 48824Phone: (517) 353-6761

Fax: (517) 355-7710E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: mipa.jrn.msu.edu

The Cover Photo”Lonely Engagement”

Driving through the city, I came across a man screaming and

pointing at people. Photo by Jacqueline Owens, Wylie E. Groves

High School, First Place Winner, Photo Story, Division 2.

January 2009

Dear Friends of Journalism:

This is the 12th issue of Michigan Interscholastic Press Association’s A Cut Above, which contains the best of high school jour-nalism in Michigan. The purpose of this booklet is twofold: 1) to showcase the first-place winners in the MIPA Individual Category Newspaper Contest and 2) to act as a guide for students and advisers preparing contest entries for the 2008-2009

competitions.In the following pages you will find stories and art by first-place winners among the five divisions 1, 2, 3, 4 and Middle School

for newspaper. We have included category descriptions and judging criteria for each category. This is how we determine divisions: We look at the number of students from each school that enters the contest. We use the

numbers from the The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). We put schools in order from the largest down to the smallest. Division 1 contains the largest schools, and Division 4 contains the smallest. We try hard to put nearly the same number of schools in each division.

We are proud of all the winners and wish we could have published all of them, but size and space dictated how many, and in some cases, which ones, were printed. Since all the winning entries were retyped to fit the format, we apologize if any errors were made in the stories. Please remember these are just a sampling of the stories.

If you would like to help judge the 2008-2009 entries for the Individual Category Newspaper or Yearbook contests, please call the MIPA office at (517) 353-6761 or e-mail [email protected]. Judging will take place on March 7, 2009, at the MSU School of Journalism. We need you!

I’d like to thank Julie Price, the current newspaper chairperson, and Lynn Strause, the current yearbook chairperson, as well as Diane Herder, current video chair, who all did a fantastic job of pulling off last year’s judging. This is a huge project, and we all owe them a round of applause!

I’d also like to thank Amy Brandt, Jayna Salk and Jonathan Vereecke for laying out the pages, taking photographs, scanning images and adding the documents. These three MIPA employees work hard for all of us!

Finally, I’d like to thank all the wonderful advisers, the MIPA executive board, The State News staff members and School of Journalism faculty for giving up a chunk of your Saturday to come to MSU to help judge. Without you, of course, there would be no winners!

For complete information about all of the contests, please check out the MIPA Web site at http://mipa.jrn.msu.edu.

Sincerely,Cheryl M. PellMIPA director305 Communication Arts BuildingMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI 48824

PHONE: (517) 353-6761FAX: (517) 355-7710E-MAIL: [email protected]

A Cut Above 5

News Story

Shrouded in ControversyJacob Visovatti & Drew JurgensenSaline High School

As his coach spoke and emotions ran high in the room, Dieter Heren realized the outcome.

His season was done. Over. Kaputz.“It was frustrating,” the freshman football player said.

“Everyone works, pushes themselves, comes to practice and it all came to nothing.”

Heren and his teammates’ disappointment came as a result of a week-long controversy that ultimately led to two separate emergency school board meetings, three front page stories in The Ann Arbor News, and the suspension of the superintendent Beverly Geltner.

The now well-publicized affair was brought to light when all four freshmen football coaches resigned after Geltner reinstated a player who had been booted from the team for using coarse language towards a coach.

The whole situation began months prior, on Aug. 12. According to an incident report filed by athletic director Rob White and principal Ben Williams, a player swore at one of the coaches and threatened a lawsuit when his com-plaint about not getting enough water was disregarded. The report states that the team had just received a water break and was starting conditioning when the student complained about a lack of water, to which the coach reminded him that they had just been given a water break. The report indicated that the player then followed with a foul remark, and the coaches told the player there was a problem. The student then threatened with a lawsuit, was dismissed from practice, and, according to the report, was later expelled from the team.

While the situation appeared to be dead, it was brought back to life when Geltner issued a letter to the community Oct. 3, explaining why she was reinstating the expelled player. In the letter, she said, “I learned that the guidelines [of the MHSAA] were not followed by the team’s coaches. After consulting with one of the team’s athletic trainers, and with the sports medicine physician who serves as the team doctor to the entire Saline Athletic Department, I further determined that the student’s misbehavior may indeed have been attributable to a dehydration problem.”

In response to her decision, the freshmen coaches informed the team of Geltner’s action and their decision to resign in protest.

The matter was further complicated when Dr. Sean Adelman wrote an email on Oct. 4 clarifying the conversa-tion he had with Geltner. Adelman stated that her call was “spontaneous and unscheduled,” and that Geltner “did not disclose her true agenda, nor the purpose for the phone call.” He said that he did not intend his “informally-requested and

informally-given” comments to be used in such a manner.Geltner declined an interview for this story via email.An emergency school board meeting was called for Oct.

6. The purpose of the meeting was to hear public comments on the events, and then to discuss the direction the board would take in closed session.

After over two and a half hours of public comments, the school board decided to place Geltner on paid administra-tive leave and conduct an investigation into her actions as superintendent.

Lost amid closed-door conversations and legal disputes was a football season cancelled, and 42 freshmen football players who lost something meaningful. The day after their coaches’ resignation, the players wore white t-shirts embla-zoned with the words, “In honor of our coaches.”

“I absolutely support the coaches,” said Heren, who helped organize the t-shirt movement. “They had to take a stand when no one else would. It upset me, but I under-stood why they had to. [Geltner] sent the wrong message.”

Several after-school meetings were held between the freshmen football team, athletic director Rob White, prin-cipal Ben Williams, and varsity head coach Mike Glennie. While the meetings were intended to help the players under-stand the situation, the sessions underscored a trend of los-ing the human element amongst the bureaucratic shuffle.

“I’m really mad,” freshman Hakar Yasin said. “I hate it. Of course it’s unfair, because the superintendent took over and just [cancelled the season]. Most of the kids on the team don’t like [Geltner] right now.”

Yasin’s sentiments reflect those of most of the team, freshman David Armstrong said.

“Geltner did the wrong thing in making it a personal issue,” he said. “She did not let the coaches do their job, and she disrespected them.”

The effects of this mismanagement of affairs have been far-reaching and detrimental to the morale of the district, said Kim Mitchell, mother of freshman football player Dylan Burrows.

“It’s very unfortunate,” Mitchell said. “Geltner never had the full picture, she did what she wanted to do. I was very much in support of the coaches’ action. It was a lot of drama, and I’ll be glad when we move on.”

Although the investigation into Geltner is still under way, many players have already begun to put the experience in perspective and focus on what’s to come.

“We’re just getting ready for next year,” Heren said.The freshmen team will come out in full force next year,

ready to play a complete season at the junior varsity level, he said.

Added Armstrong, “We’re a team, we’re strong, we’re family.”

News StoryNews stories report but not interpret events that have news value and time-liness to the publication’s readers. Either advance or follow-up stories may be included in this category.

Guidelines• sharp, attention-getting

lead that underscored news story importance

• shows thorough reporting skills

• effective use of facts/quotes from both primary and sec-ondary sources

• avoids opinion unless prop-erly attributed

• sentences, paragraphs of varied lengths; written clearly, concisely and vividly

• proper diction/grammar; use of third person

• uses inverted pyramid or other appropriate story con-struction

First place winners by division

1 Jacob Visovatti & Drew Jurgensen Saline

2 Mimi Karabulut Wylie E Groves

3 Amelia Carpenter Seaholm

4 Alyse Snyder Haslett

M Kaitlyn Rabach Mona Shores

6 A Cut Above

More students removed from Groves due to out-of-district addresses

News Analysis

Beth WeilerWylie E Groves High School

The day she turned seventeen last March, senior Hannah Duke came home from school to an unexpected birthday gift: a phone call from the district, explaining that Duke would not be able to complete the remainder of her year at Groves. The district informed Duke and her family of the decision after a periodic check showed that her cur-rent residency had become invalid.

Other Groves students received similar news this year: by phone, letter, or in person. An increasing number of students attending Groves who do not legally belong in the district forced the administration to adopt stricter poli-cies about residency guidelines and enact new penalties for residency fraud.

According to legal counsel for the district Richard Kroopnick, this problem has increased because of Birmingham district’s excellent reputation.

“Sometimes parents claims that they live in Birmingham so their child can attend school there, but they don’t. They often use the name or address of a friend or family member as their residency address. That’s the most common situation we see with residency fraud,” Kroopnick said.

Once the families who are not eligible to enroll are identified, they are denied admission, eliminating future problems. Although this process is easier for the board, situations can arise during the school year that must be reviewed. To carry out these investigations and ensure that all students have legitimate residency, new measures have been enacted.

During registration this year, all students experienced a least one of these new procedures.

“We provided a list of addresses and names that we had on file for students, and then they looked at your emer-gency card, and they checked right away the address to see if somebody had moved,” Farner said.

In addition to more routine checks on addresses, penal-ties for temporary illegitimate residency were enacted to prevent future residency fraud within the district.

“The board decided that there had to be a penalty for lying or committing fraud,” Kroopnick said. “The new penalty for families that commit fraud, but later become residents and have students that attend the school, is that for one year, the student cannot participate in any extracur-ricular activities, including sports.”

Former Groves student and defensive back for the foot-ball team, Bruce Horner, who now attends Harrison High School in Farmington, was one of the athletes who did not live in the district and was disenrolled his junior year and re-enrolled in the same year, with legitimate residency. He finished his junior year, spent the following summer practicing with the Falcons, then appealed to the Board of Education their decision to remove him from the foot-

ball team. When that decision stood, Horner enrolled in Harrison High School to retain his Cincinnati University scholarship.

“I knew that there was a problem when Brenda [the hall monitor] pulled me out of Football Tech in front of the whole team,” Horner said.

Horner was devastated to learn that he would have to leave his friends, teammates, coaches, and school.

“They basically ended up saying ‘We don’t want you here anymore.’ It wasn’t helping me at all that I couldn’t be with my team when they needed me the most,” Horner said.

Although students such as Duke and Horner feel the Birmingham Public School District now focuses too much on removing students, Birmingham District residency adviser Andrew Wilson explained that he often helps fami-lies enter the district, especially those new to the district or those struggling with residency problems.

“My job is twofold; one facet of my job is to verify residency of newly enrolled students and current students. I am also required to assist incoming families to our school district determine [their] eligibility,” Wilson said. “I work with families new to the district with unique residency situ-ations that require expertise to navigate through.”

Since some of these families do not own homes, but rent or have guardianship of the student, they must meet with Wilson at the Board of Education Administration building to prove their residency. After providing the administration with the necessary documents, such as a copy of property taxes, the student can then attend the school. Wilson explained that determining residency is complicated and requires a deep understanding of legal guidelines and community decisions.

“The community of Birmingham and, therefore, the Birmingham board has made a decision that the Birmingham schools shall be closed; thus, we are obligated to maintain a closed school district for our constituents and residence. We are not a school of choice, or what is also called an open school district. As a closed school district, we are required to only enroll students who are in our geo-graphical boundaries of our district or under other qualifi-cations under State or NCL guidelines,” Wilson said.

Wilson described the thick text in his office that cata-logs, in over a hundred pages, exactly what those “other qualifications” can be along with the legal guidelines to determine legitimate residency.

“Residency and enrollment is more than just the question of ‘where do you live,’ and many are under the assumption that that’s what it is. Residency involves a whole lot more than just where you live.”

None-the-less, for clarity, Wilson tried to distill the definition to two factors.

“One: You must have a qualifying residency in our dis-trict. And, two: you must reside in it,” Wilson said.

News AnalysisStories should be interpre-tive by nature, not straight news stories. The elements of “why” and “how” should be examined through thorough research, but the writer’s opinions should not be expressed.

Guidelines• sharp, attention-getting lead

that underscores news story importance

• clarifies the news elements, i.e. timeliness, nearness, impact, prominence

• clarifies through research the background necessary to understand current news

• develops an understand-ing of the issues/problems through interviews with varied and balanced sources.

• avoids personal opinions unless properly attributed

• sentences, paragraphs of varied lengths, written clearly, concisely and vividly

• effective use of facts/ quotes from both primary and sec-ondary sources



1 Kevin Giannotti Saline

2 Beth Weiler Wylie E Groves

3 Christina Pillsbury Loy Norrix

4 Jennifer MacDonald South Lake

M Zach Haugh Mona Shores

Groves, continued on page 24

A Cut Above 7

Assemblies waste class time regularlyEditorial

StaffPlymouth-Canton Park High School

Let’s face it; not too many students enjoy sitting for 58 minutes during class, waiting for the quiet click of the clock, signaling their freedom. It’s tough to stay patient and focused for classes that seem to drag on and on.

But in the same respect, not many of those students want to use their free time after school and on weekends to finish the work they didn’t do during school hours.

Class time is limited; so while teachers plan their already full hours to use almost every free moment of class to do something, it’s often difficult to stay on sched-ule. When the school then has so many unplanned and often ridiculous interruptions, it’s a wonder anything can get done at all.

For example, already twice this year the senior class has been removed from their 5th hour class for assem-blies. One of these interruptions was for MME informa-tion, which is necessary for most students, but the distrac-tion it caused still disrupted classes.

On the other hand, we have already had two assem-blies which were used as infomercials trying to sell prod-ucts to students. For example, the senior class had an assembly for getting their caps and gowns. At this presen-tation they were also possibly persuaded to purchase invi-

tations and other things for their open houses. In addi-tion, sophomores attended an assembly for class rings.

Sure, these companies probably do make a lot of their income from coming to high schools like ours and presenting their products. But pulling entire grades from their regularly scheduled class time and trying to sell them products is neither right nor fair.

School time should be used for exactly that: learning. Although many students are not fans of thinking of it this way, school is for learning. Learning is done in the classroom, not by watching company representatives push products in our faces.

The students who are actually interested in buying these items should be able to buy them, but that infor-mation can certainly be passed out in the first couple minutes of class to students. Spending an entire half an hour or longer to talk about them to an auditorium full of uninterested students just doesn’t make sense.

Now, that’s not to say that the occasional break from the regular day’s schedule can never be a good thing. Pulling us from class to participate in events like pep rallies does help build a sense of pride for this school. Attempting to sell us stuff, however, does not.

Next time the school plans on removing us from the everyday class monotony, please make it for a justifiable reason.

EditorialEditorials should repre-sent the opinion of the staff, editors or editorial board on a timely news matter of concern to the school, community, state, nation or world. They may express appreciation, offer interpretation or attempt to deal with problems. Editorials are not to be bylined, signed or ini-tialed, or in any way iden-tified as being the opinion of the writer(s).

Guidelines• topic relevant to interest

and/or welfare of school or students

• wins reader interest with impelling lead

• presents evidence/interpre-tation in logical sequence

• states issues; uses effective examples, facts and comparisons to clarify

• deals with specific issue; avoids preaching and rheto-ric cliches

•shows sufficient thought and research

• sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clear-ly, concisely and vividly

• proper diction/grammar


1 Staff Plymouth-Canton Park

2 Charlotte Berschback Grosse Pointe South

3 Staff Mason

4 Heidi Lentz Laingsburg

5 Staff Brownell

8 A Cut Above

Bylined Opinion Article

Blaire EdgertonForest Hills Eastern High School

It’s half past nine in the morning and I am sitting in my English class. Of course I’ve brought nothing to read; the one day we actually need a book is the day I forget to bring it. Typical. I glance around the room and my eyes settle on a book laying flat on my teacher’s table. The side reads Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Sounds interesting enough. I ask my teacher if I can see it, and she eagerly hands it to me. The cover displays a picture of a teenager’s tattooed stomach, emblazoned with the words Generation Me. An iPod sits comfortably in her pocket and she’s sporting a butterfly piercing directly below her navel.

Now you’re probably thinking, “What kind of an editorial is this? She’s going on and on about some stupid design of a book cover, but where’s the opinion? Where’s the persuasion?”

Well, here it is:In case you weren’t quick enough to pick up on the book

title, they’re talking about us. Specifically those of us born between the years of 1980 and 1995 and those of us that believe what our parents always told us: “You’re special. You can do anything you set your mind to.” And let’s face it: we truly believe we can.

Today, our lives revolve around our iPods, our Facebooks, ourselves. We come home from school each day and what’s the first thing we do? Check our Facebooks, of course, to see if that cute guy or girl has finally written on our wall or if our best friends have put up those pictures from last night’s party. In the mean time, our homework gets neglected, as do our chores and other obligations.

Now I’m with you, what’s wrong with a little bit of fun? According to studies collected by Ph.D. Jean M. Twenge, nothing, other than the fact that we’re becoming the most narcissistic generation to date and hold untrue beliefs about our futures in society. If you’re a little slow on the uptake and don’t see the problem with being “confident, open-minded and ambitious” as Generation Me so unwittingly states, just remember that along with those terms comes “cynical, depressed, lonely and anxious.” But what do we have to make us feel any of those ways, you ask? Good question.

What the entire book is trying to say is we’re a little too . . . for lack of a better word, special. We’ve grown up being told we’re the prettiest or the smartest or the most athletic, but come on, we can’t all be the best.

Just the other day I saw a great commercial advertising LeBron James’ new basketball shoes . . . and unknowingly

then, the entire point of this essay. It showed Lebron becom-ing the powerhouse athlete he is today, and it ending by say-ing, “You don’t want to be me. You want to be better than me.”

Great line, but probably not many of us truly took it to heart and went out into our driveways to perfect our jump shots and finish those free throws. But, there might actually be a few of us who did. Obviously, it appears if you’re not a major NCAA college recruit or being looked at during your freshmen year by the best of the best, then you probably aren’t ever going to be better than Lebron James. Sad, I know, but it’s the truth.

So what about those people who do think they can be better—and want to be better—but probably never will? Let’s think about that. Might they have feelings of depression, anxi-ety, or being inadequate? Yeah, pretty much what Dr. Twenge said.

Okay, so you’re not one of those people who hit the base-line after that commercial came out? Fine, I’m sure there are plenty other situations that had you going. Don’t think so? As Dr. Twenge writes, “Materialism is the most obvious outcome of a straightforward, practical focus on the self: you want more things for yourself. You feel entitled to get the best things in life: the best clothes, the best house, and the best car. You’re special; you deserve special things” (Generation Me 100).

So about those Vera Bradley satchels I see you carrying along with the rest of the girl population, and those Ugg boots or perfectly manicured fingernails? Uh-huh, that’s what I thought. According to Twenge, we’re just buying ourselves the best because we are the best. We all think we’re the prettiest, so we should have the prettiest nails; we’re the most fashionable, so we should have the cutest pair of Uggs. You’ve obviously caught on by now; the problem is everyone is thinking the same thing.

So how will this affect us in our future? It may not seem like a big deal that we’re all thinking we’re the best right now, but someday, it could have major consequences.

Think about it this way. There will come a day when we no longer have straight A’s because we’re in hard college courses. There will come a day when we start our first job and realize it isn’t quite exactly the job of our dreams. What then? Obviously, this could cause some major anxieties for some people.

Twenge suggests that our generation should become more in-tune with reality and what’s waiting out there in the “real world.” In other words, stop living in your own electronic exis-tence and get out there.

Life happens. Get used to it.

Bylined OpinionArticles of personal opin-ion, which carry the byline of the writer(s), may com-ment on any subject of interest (including sports) and/or concern of the readers, or may express dissent from the major-ity opinion expressed in editorials.

Guidelines• topic relevant to interest


• wins reader interest with impelling lead

• presents evidence/interpre-tation in logical sequence

• states issues; uses effective examples, facts and comparisons to clarify

• deals with specific issues; avoids preaching, rhetoric and cliches

• shows sufficient thought and knowledge of subject, developed with personal style




1 Stephanie Ostrowski Plymouth-Canton Park

2 Amanda Norris Portage Central

3 Jessica Fink Andover

4 Blaire Edgerton Forest Hills Eastern

M Emily Cervone Brownell

Generation Me

A Cut Above 9

Review

Guidelines• sharp, attention-getting lead

that clarifies subject• gives short summary or ade-

quate information about subject

• discusses strengths and weaknesses of subject

• uses specific examples to support opinion

• displays knowledge of subject

• shows thought and research• colorful, lively presentation;

effective form/style• proper diction/grammar

ReviewReview should present opinions, observations and evaluations of film, books, television, record-ings, concerts, plays, res-taurants and other things of interest to the paper’s readers.


1 Allegra Smith South Lyon

2 Bee Dion & Aileen Xu H. H. Dow

3 Ryan Aliapoulios Dexter

4 Chloe Kent Detroit Country Day

M Brianna Hines Mona Shores

Brianna HinesMona Shores Middle School

The new iPod Touch sets high standards for all future mp3 players.

Although it starts at a fairly high price, with its shiny stainless steel appearance it allows you to do a variety of features with the touch of a finger. This is one of the latest products from Apple Company and it is one to never be forgotten.

It was released late September and started with a price of $299.00 for the 8 GB model and $399,00 for the 16 GB. Although the prices may seem a bit high, it is still a must have item for the Christmas list.

This eye-catching new device also has a striking 3.5 inch wide-screen display and weighs just 4.2 ounces compared to the 4.8 ounce iPhone. Most people will like the portable device because it’s small and easy to carry

around. PC Magazine says it is “the best portable mp3 player ever made.”

Features included in it are music, videos, photos, and the ability to view the web. One of the coolest features may be the backlight screen that automatically adjusts to the brightness in surrounding areas, which would come in handy if you were ever in a dark area. Many say they like the iPod Touch the best because it has everything you would ever need into one little object.

It also has Wi-Fi Internet accessibility that will allow you to search the Internet no matter where you are. Say for instance you hear a song on the radio and you want it right away. You could easily download it onto your iPod Touch in just seconds. This definitely sets it apart from other mp3 players because no other mp3 player has the latest features.

This is an extraordinary device and it is one of the best creations from the Apple Company.

iPod Touch comes with many features, but with a heavy price

10 A Cut Above

Feature Column

Krista ClementGrand Haven High School

What happened to the proper English these days? The music business, Text messaging and MSN have killed the art of language. I know, I know, “If Soulja Boy can talk like that then it must be cool right?” News flash peeps, it is not too desirable if you cannot even spell a simple word like tasty—and please do not tell me that there is an ‘e’, spell check just told me otherwise. Oh and last time I checked, there are no reported deaths from verb, adjec-tive, adverb, article or preposition usage, so please do us all a favor and use them in a Facebook status—unless you really are Christmas break. If you do not believe that English is being killed slowly, let me show you:

U c, kidz dez dayz jus dun get dat typin like diz isnt kewl or in any case, legible. I think I hit rock bottom the other night when I was surfing one of my all time favorite sites, YouTube. A comment war had broken out on a Lil’ Wayne video I was ever so excited to watch. Now, put-ting all jokes aside on what I believe is the lowest form of fighting anyway, each comment I read, I had to pull out my ole trust decoder to actually comprehend. I will never understand how you can spell words with a disarray of “at” symbols and numbers. There is such thing as an alphabet for a reason! I want to make a shout out to those idiots who actually thought they were being “hip.” If you want ANYONE to take you seriously, act even the least bit educated, it goes a long way.

I first noticed this dictionary lapse when the term “OMG” slipped into my vocabulary one day. It was hor-rible and I decided to change my ways. You could say that I am a member of the SA (please ignore the reference to Nazi Germany police, it was not intended) society, otherwise known as Short-handaholics Anonymous. In

addition, I have come up with my own 12 steps for you to follow:

1. You must admit that you are powerless to Shorthand and that our lives have become unmanageable.

2. You must believe that a power greater than our-selves could restore us to sanity.

3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Webster as the dictionary that guides us.

4. Seek vocabulary inventory of our conversations.5. Admit to Webster, to yourself, and to another

human being the exact nature of your wrongdoing.6. Be entirely ready to have all these defects of charac-

ter removed from your vocabulary.7. Now, humbly ask—and in good grammar—for

your English teacher to remove all shortcomings.8. Make a list of all people you have annoyed or con-

fused, and become willing to help them understand what you ask.

9. Make direct amends with these people, doing what-ever it takes—unless it confuses them more.

10. Take personal inventory of all the things you have said. If something was dumb, admit you were wrong and seek a thesaurus.

11. Seek to improve your conscious contact with Webster as the dictionary that guides us. Read only for knowledge of its will for us and the power to carry it out.

12. Have an awakening as the result of the 12 steps, try to carry this message to Short-handaholics and prac-tice these principles in all life’s conversations.

Now go my weary texters and MSN junkies. Revive your speech before it is too late. I have saved myself from the dark tunnel of OMG’s and ROFL’s now it is time for others to follow in the path. Be strong and remember, Just because Soulja Boy throws the dictionary our the window, does not mean you have to too.

Feature ColumnEach entry must consist of two examples of feature and/or opinion columns under the same standing head from different issues of the paper, authorized by the same writer(s). Columns must carry bylines or other writer identification to indicate the personal nature of the content.

Guidelines• sharp, attention-getting

leads• express personal opinions;

uses consistent style• reflects thought/research,

freshness, individuality• effective use of facts/ quotes

or supporting material• informative, interesting,

entertaining• upholds journalistic integrity• sentences, paragraphs of

varied length; written clearly, concisely an vividly



1 Krista Clement Grand Haven

2 Starr Sexton Waterford Kettering

3 Britta Eastburg Forest Hills Central

4 Hugh Belden Community

M Emma Huellmantel Brownell

The joke that will never be funny

A Cut Above 11

Pro/Con Editorial Columns

Guidelines•topics relevant to interests


•two pieces, while offering opposing views, are consis-tent in style and tone

•both pieces win reader interest with impelling leads

•present evidence/interpreta-tion in logical sequence

State issue; uses effective examples, facts and compari-sons to clarify

•deal with specific issue; avoids preaching, rhetoric and clichés

•show sufficient thought and knowledge of subject, devel-oped with personal style

•sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly

•proper diction/grammar

Pro/Con EditorialEach entry must• have two (2) columns that express opposing viewpoints on one topic• the columns should be writ-ten by two people and featured on onepage of the opinion/editorial section• both columns should be glued to the same entry form• have a standing head that indicates the pro/con nature of the package• carry bylines or other writer identification to indicate the personalopinion nature of the contentA school may submit a second entry in this category, and the piecesmay be written by the same columnists or combination including oneof the same columnists.


1 Ryan Ridenour & Vidhi Bamzai Novi

2 Carol Thompson & Andrew Mongrue H. H. Dow

3 Ryan Isakow & Alex Shek Andover

4 Kimberly Warren & Samantha Farmer Quincy

M Allysa Benton & Kaylee Wolff Mona Shores

Wiki WorldCarol Thompson & Andrew MongrueH. H. Dow High School

ProThroughout their education, students have been taught by

listening to long lectures and curt threats not to use Wikipedia. It’s dangerous. It’s not a valid source. It’s obscene. Every word of it is completely false. If students use Wikipedia, their papers will be riddled with errors and the teacher will be forced to give them no credit.

The rest of the world, though, seems to accept the Internet Encyclopedia. Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most visited Web sites. It has over 8 million articles in over 200 languages, 15 times the size of Encyclopedia Britannica. In a controversial article published by Nature, Wikipedia was found to have fewer errors than Britannica.

Anybody can edit Wikipedia articles, which would mean that they could write whatever biased garbage they want, if Wikipedia didn’t have ways to regulate that. If an article is on the Wikipedia’s front page as the Feature Article, it has to have many valid citations and be reviewed before it appears. The German version is working on a program where the encyclopedia can lock articles from editing if they are prone to vandalism. If the program is successful, it will be implemented in other language versions.

Wikipedia is a good tool for getting a quick understanding of a subject or event. It’s neatly organized into important cat-egories and makes it easy to find information. Wikipedia also has a bibliography where it lists the sources where the article’s information came from, giving the students a simple way to find other sources to use for research.

The school’s Social Studies curriculum stresses the differ-ence between primary sources and secondary sources, teaching that first hand knowledge is much more valuable. Wikipedia is a secondary source. In fact, it gets most of its information from the other secondary sources. All encyclopedias, not just Wikipedia, are secondary sources.

Teachers may also fear Wikipedia because of the tempta-tion it poses. Students may want to copy whole paragraphs from articles and use them in their papers. Teachers need not worry any more. Now, coming with IB, the school will have a program called Turn It In where teachers can submit a student’s paper to be checked against Internet sources to see if there has been any plagiarism.

Students who are trusted to use the Internet for research should be trusted to use Wikipedia, with sufficient caution. Every article has a bibliography at the bottom where readers can see exactly where the information came from. Readers are given every opportunity to verify the validity of the informa-tion. Some facts make it into the article without citation, but Wikipedia warns that a citation is needed.

On the Wikipedia article about the site, there are criticisms of the site and documentation of times when articles have been vandalized and not corrected for four months. If an encyclope-dia was biased, it would avoid publishing criticisms of itself.

Wikipedia may not be 100 percent reliable, but it’s not any less reliable than other sources, and students should be allowed to use it.

ConWikipedia is a multilingual, web based, free content ency-

clopedia project. Volunteers from all over the world write on Wikipedia. Anyone can put information on Wikipedia, no matter who they are and what the information is about, true or false.

Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source by many teachers because it has 13 percent error. Many teachers forbid students from using Wikipedia as a reference. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia article by simply clicking “edit this page.” When students use Wikipedia for research, the only way to know if the facts found on Wikipedia are true is by checking another credible source.

Not only does Wikipedia include articles with misinforma-tion, it also contains photos. In the world today, technology, like Photoshop can enhance pictures and move the objects in the photo around, while moving new objects in. Using a pic-ture that you don’t know is authentic needs to be checked, just like the articles, which causes wasted time and frustration.

Wikipedia even admits that older articles tend to be more accurate, while newer articles tend to be less reliable. Although older articles may be useful, when people want to find current news they look at the newer articles, which may be false. Using misleading information from Wikipedia is no way to inform you with current news.

Wikipedia says their information is updated in minutes or hours, but if the information was valid nothing should have to be changed. People should never find a fact one day and then go back to Wikipedia the next day and see it’s been changed. It’s embarrassing when a teacher corrects a fact a student pres-ents in a project and then asks for the source. The student is put in an awkward position.

Wikipedia is relaxed about the misleading information sub-ject. Wikipedia says not to worry about accidentally damaging Wikipedia when adding or improving information, because other editors are there to correct the mistakes. Before adding information to Wikipedia, users should check their informa-tion so false information is never posted.

Plagiarism is often found when students use Wikipedia. When assuming something is right from the Web site, students can simply copy and paste to make the work look like theirs. For students who do this, it’s likely that a section of something copied from Wikipedia is false and a teacher will easily catch on to the plagiarism.

When the new IB program called Turn It On comes into action students will be caught for plagiarism from Wikipedia. The program will immediately contact the teacher to let them know if the student copied work. Taking a chance like this can cost students their grade and it’s illegal.

Wikipedia is not a way to do valid research because you don’t know when it is true or false. It’s more reliable to use a more credible source. Plagiarism also appears because every-thing is right there in one place on Wikipedia, but soon the program Turn It On with IB will catch you. Play it safe and get your facts right.

12 A Cut Above

In-Depth Feature

Guidelines• lead captures attention,

arouses curiosity• topic relevant to interests

and/or welfare of schools or students

• extensive, intensive and thorough investigation

• effectively combines basics of good news and feature writing

• effectively organized with smooth transitions; carefully outlined

• sentences, paragraphs of varied length; clearly writ-ten clearly, concisely and vividly

• proper diction/grammar• balanced and fair presenta-

tion

In-Depth FeatureThis is a single story, which may contain a sidebar or infographic from the same author. This is not a spread or a special section. Entries should concern subjects of a substantive and con-temporary nature and go beyond the surface facts, give the reader detailed background information with interpretation based upon the facts and back-ground information and often (but not necessarily) an analysis as to its mean-ing It is an elaboration of the WHY. Multiple sources are necessary.


1 Rebecca Boeve Grand Haven

2 Samantha Kaca Wylie E Groves

3 Sean Shapiro North Farmington

4 Jennifer MacDonald South Lake

M Emily Cervone & Emma Huellmantel Brownell

Myspace vs FacebookJennifer MacDonaldSouth Lake High School

The numbers don’t lie. Social networking websites Facebook and MySpace have grown to colossal popularity within a few years.

According to Peter Cashmore on Mashable.com, a social networking news, on April 9, 2006, at 7:41 EST, MySpace had its 100 millionth account. As of today over 200 million accounts have been made.

“Of course, that figure has been bumped up by millions of fake and inactive accounts,” Cashmore said. “It’s still a remarkable achievement.

Facebook, created by 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg in his Harvard dorm room, is growing at a spectacular rate and is MySpace’s number one contender in the social network-ing scene.

Each day on Facebook, according to Trendcatching.com, a website for internet statistics, 250,000 new accounts are made. That is a 3 percent weekly growth.

Alongside their surplus amount of users, MySpace and Facebook’s net worth is growing.

During an interview with Zuckerberg, TIME magazine mentioned that Yahoo offered $1 billion for Facebook, before that Viacom put up a $750 million bid. Zuckerberg refuses to be bought out.

According to Scott Granneman, publisher of the article “MySpace, a Place without My Parents,” Rupert Murdoch, chairman and managing director of News Corporation, bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005.

“Murdoch’s no dummy,” Granneman says. “It seems like it was a pretty smart decision, since the site pulls in around $13 million each month from advertising sales.”

Today, Mashable.com reports that during an interview Murdoch revealed that MySpace is pulling in nearly $25 million per month in ad revenue, with a growth rate of 30 percent each quarter.

It is hard to believe that a website where communica-tion is its sole purpose has turned into a multi million dollar corporation.

Multi-million dollar social-networking websites?Yes, these two websites have changed the way teens and

adults alike communicate today. Senior Caitlin Jones agrees that it has changed her view on some of her peers.

“I think Facebook/MySpace helps students have some-thing in common with other students that they usually wouldn’t,” Jones said. “You can learn so much about other people that you couldn’t by just looking at them in the halls.”

It’s about communication and connection. These two things are the common link between MySpace and Facebook. Both websites have the same goal, but, in certain areas, they one-up each other. Senior Patrick Louden knows where MySpace comes up short.

“Facebook is superior to MySpace because of its net-working capability,” Louden said. “Tagging is awesome, and I feel the privacy is a lot better, too.”

Facebook is known for its photo sharing abilities, which turn into statistics that MySpace just can’t compete with.

According to Trendcatching.com, with one billion pho-tos hosted on the site, six million uploaded each day and 70k photos served per second, Facebook has been named the biggest photo-sharing site on the web.

Jones believes that Facebook is unique.“The applications on Facebook make it even more fun,”

Jones said. “One of my favorites is the ‘Super Poke’, which lets me say ‘hi’ to friends in a different way. For example, last week I threw a sheep at [my friend] Ali. I mean how often can you say you threw a sheep at someone?”

Throwing a sheep at someone? Yes, it is part of a fantasy-reality that facebook creates for its users, but it wasn’t always this way. During his interview with TIME magazine, Zuckerberg describes the small beginnings of the website.

“For a while we actually constrained our growth,” Zuckerberg said. “We made it so that only people in college could sign up. We rolled it out to all the colleges, all the high schools, then a bunch of companies could sign up, and now everyone can sign up.”

Jones said she heard it first from one of her friends in college.

“Facebook was [at that time] definitely less popular [than MySpace], but that’s what a lot of my friends used in college,” Jones said. “So I made it to keep in touch with them.”

Louden felt the same way.“My favorite thing to do on Facebook is to keep in

touch with friends in college,” Louden said, “and to look at their pictures.”

According to an article published by the New York Times, Tom Anderson, 29, and Chris DeWolf spread the word about MySpace anywhere they could.

“Since we’re telling people in clubs – models – suddenly everyone on MySpace looks really pretty,” Anderson said. “That wasn’t really the plan. It just kind of happened.”

Louden also heard about MySpace through word of mouth.

“I heard about MySpace when I came to South Lake as a sophomore,” Louden said, “through the lunch room chat.”

Jones remembers making her MySpace and how quickly it turned into an obsession.

“I made my MySpace freshman year so that I could look at other people’s MySpace [pages],” Jones said. “Now I check my pages more than once a day for sure. It becomes addicting because it’s just a fun way to talk to friends.”

From their small beginnings to their now multi-million dollar status, Facebook and MySpace have redefined the way people communicate. Sometimes it isn’t always a good thing.

“I think technology like this [MySpace and Facebook] takes away from our need to talk face to face with people,” Jones said. “I see a lot of people getting in arguments online, yet they can’t say anything face-to-face.”

Louden also warns against what the new-age social networking scene can hold for adolescents.

“A lot of gossip, drama, headaches, etc. can come up by taking them [MySpace and Facebook] too seriously,” Louden said. “They are good to keep in touch with distant friends, not for starting drama.”

A Cut Above 13

Informative Feature

Meagan ChoiHaslett High School

From seventh grade until last summer, freshman Austin VanKrevelen was drinking eight to 12 cans of Mountain Dew a day. One can of Mountain Dew con-tains 55 milligrams of caffeine. “I am a recovering caf-feine addict,” VanKrevelen said.

VanKrevelen’s caffeine and sugar intake was reach-ing dangerous levels. Dr. David Grimshaw said caffeine’s effect depends on how long it stays in your body, which is essentially an individual’s metabolism rate. “If your body gets use to it, it’s better at metabolizing it than if it’s a new thing,” Dr. Grimshaw said.

When taken to a health specialist, VanKrevelen under-went multiple tests. His blood glucose levels were off the charts. “[The doctor said] I’d end up with diabetes in a few years,” VanKrevelen said. The specialist’s solution: stay off sugar in general.

Caffeine is a stimulant found in different plants, the most well known being coffee beans and tea plants. “Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug, more so than alcohol,” Dr. Grimshaw said. Ninety percent of Americans have caffeine in their daily diets. However, in most cases, this intake is purposeful.

One of the stimulant’s beneficial effects is it imme-diately crosses into the brain where it turns off certain receptors, Dr. Grimshaw said. The result of blocking these receptors is the increase of dopamine-based neu-rotransmitter functions. Dopamine is the chemical in the brain allowing people to be very alert and remember events or information in clear detail. Because of this, drugs used to treat attention deficit disorder, such as Adderall and Ritalin, are found in the same category as caffeine.

One of caffeine’s main functions is to stimulate the release of stored sugar into the bloodstream. In addition, it triggers the body’s internal stimulant to release sugar naturally. Dr. Grimshaw said, “That tells your liver to release all the stored sugar, which for about two hours is beautiful.” Then the body abruptly becomes aware of all of the sugar. In response, the pancreas produces great quantities of insulin. Insulin is the hormone used to absorb sugar. Suddenly all of the stored and added sugar is gone. The body crashes, left with no reserves from which to draw energy.

Danger is even more imminent when sugar and caf-feine are combined.

“It’s a metabolic disaster,” Dr. Grimshaw said. A Monster not only contains a large quantity of caffeine, but also 54 grams of sugar. These ingredients combine and multiply the effects of caffeine by adding that extra sugar into the body.

Although small amounts of caffeine can be harm-less, there is a delicate line drawn between reasonable and excess. “It really does [depend on the person],” Dr. Grimshaw said. Downsides of overuse include irritabil-

ity, anxiety, nervousness and excessive restlessness. Van Krevelen said he notices he is extremely jittery and becomes angry at small annoyances more frequently than before when he was consuming Mountain Dew.

However, these are only the short-term consequences. “The woman who got the Nobel Peace Prize for starting to understand the hormonal effects [of sugar] called sugar as dangerous as heroin,” Dr. Grimshaw said. “We think it’s just innocuous. Over time, it starts heading down the road to the things that cause people to die: heart attacks, strokes, diabetes. It’s a big deal.”

Senior Ari Varley is another student who admits she is a full-blown caffeine addict. The morning of Oct. 22, Varley didn’t have her regular two cups of coffee. “I’ve had a pounding headache and was shaking,” Varley said that day. She relies on coffee to just keep her going. “Caffeine withdrawal is a very uncomfortable experience,” Dr. Grimshaw said. “Since it works on the brain, the effect of withdrawing the caffeine from those receptors causes dila-tion of the blood vessels, which is kind of like a migraine headache.” The best solution is to begin tapering caffeine intake rather than stopping cold turkey. If a person is used to drinking three cups a day, gradually reduce the number and amount in order for withdrawal symptoms to be minimized.

Although some students are very open and forthright about their caffeine addiction, others say that despite the staggering amount of consumption, they are certainly not reliant on the caffeine. Senio Tony Huff drinks about three to four cans of pop a day, but on the weekends, can drink up to seven. “I drink more [while watching] foot-ball games,” Huff said. Essentially, it has become a habit.

Huff sees upperclassmen drinking caffeinated beverag-es more frequently, mainly because they are able to drive and buy the drinks, compared to the students who still rely on parents or older friends. Senior Sarah Reid, who drinks at least a cup of coffee a day, believes this also has to do with the upperclassmen’s workload. Junior Kasey Jones agrees with that assessment, “I don’t see freshmen [drinking as much]. Older kids drink more [caffeinated drinks]. Younger kids don’t stay up as late,” Jones said.

Jones said she drinks caffeine mostly to stay awake. She is often up late at night doing homework, so a cup of coffee or a Monster drink energize her during the day. Dr. Grimshaw said there is a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and caffeine usage. “The minimum time it will be in your body is six to eight hours,” he said. The smaller or younger the individual is, the longer that period of time becomes.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2006 poll, only nine percent of teens in high school receive the optimal nine or more hours of sleep. Junior Jay Twichell said of caffeine’s effects, “If I’m tired, and drink a Monster or AMP, I notice a difference,” Twichell drinks about four caffeinated drinks, normally pop, every day. Varley also

Jolts from Java

Guidelines• leads capture attention,

arouses curiosity• topic relevant to interests


• thorough investigation through research and interviews

• combines basics of good news and feature writing

• organized with smooth transitions

• balanced and fair presen-tation

• sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly


Informative FeatureStories should be written to inform or instruct. Facts are obtained from research, interviews and observations.


1 Christina Miteff South Lyon

2 Laura Pone Portage Central

3 Lizzie Curcuru & Jordan Kristopik Seaholm

4 Meagan Choi Haslett

M Zoe Davis Brownell

Jolts, continued on page 23

14 A Cut Above

Human Interest Feature

Emma HuellmantelBrownell Middle School

Five years ago a student at Brownell, Scott Allen, died of Leukemia. He will always be remembered at Brownell. It was because of Scott that English and Journalism teacher, Mr. Ernst, was found compatible for bone-mar-row transplant with a 21 year old male.

Mr. Ernst’s life-changing journey began in 2003 when Brownell hosted a blood-drive in memory of Scott Allen. Mr. Ernst had taught and tutored Scott in his first year of teaching, and then taught his brother, Brian in his fourth grade class a few years later.

Originally, Mr. Ernst was unsure if he was going to participate in the blood drive, because he was unable to donate blood due to a previous illness. “At that time, the preferred method of donating bone marrow was by hav-ing surgery where they put a huge needle into your hip and extract the bone marrow…I felt that in memory of Scott, I would put my name on the list” said Ernst.

Though Scott had already passed, Mr. Ernst donated to another. His blood type was kept in the registry of possible donors for four years until in the summer of 2007 he received a call telling him that he was a match

for someone who was going to die if he didn’t obtain a transplant.

Initially, Mr. Ernst and his wife were reluctant, but when they talked to the coordinator they were informed that there was another option called PBSC’s, which meant no surgery. They accepted the challenge. “I told my wife that I feel we have been blessed with a healthy daughter, but if she was in the same position I would hope someone else would do the same thing.”

The process was more intense than Mr. Ernst origi-nally thought. Before donation, he took injections of a drug called filgrastim which moved more blood-forming cells from his bone marrow into his bloodstream. His blood was then removed through an IV and then passed through a machine that separated the blood-forming cells. Mr. Ernst received the excess blood after the machine was finished.

The whole time he was going through the process Mr. Ernst experienced headaches, toothaches, and muscle and joint pain. However, he dealt with it and possibly saved a life. Mr. Ernst has recently learned that the recipient of the donation has fully recovered from leukemia.

“In my mind, he’s a hero,” said an extremely moved Dr. Dib.

Human Interest FeatureHuman interest features appeal to the emotions of the reader with inspira-tion, motivation, pathos or humor and often make effective use of quotes.


1 Gabi Moore Midland

2 Leanne Pratt Flushing

3 Katie Johnson Dexter

4 Jocelyn Mettler Sturgis

M Emma Huellmantel Brownell


arouses curiosity• emphasizes new element,

fresh angle• colorful, lively presentation;

effective form/style• reflects adequate research,

sound interviewing tech-niques from a variety of sources

• effective use of facts/ quotes• interesting; appeals to the

emotions• proper diction/grammar

A Little Pain, a Lot of Gain

A Cut Above 15

Britta EastburgForest Hills Central High School

Ali Morgan left for South Africa in June as a nervous, but relatively normal, American 18-year old on a mission. She returned eight months later, barefoot, with a heavy accent and boar’s hair woven into her numerous braids. In addition, she knows her life will never be the same.

A few nights before graduating from FHC with the class of 2007, Morgan woke up, as she puts it, “with a burning passion and calling for Africa.” At the time she had no money, no passport, no visa and little support. She just knew she had to go. So Morgan shared her passion through a letter she sent out to many family and friends and simply waited. A mere three weeks later, she was stepping off her plane in Africa.

“I don’t know how I did it, honestly. The only answer is God. I knew there was always something more than the American way,” Morgan said. “I had to give up everything to go: my friends and family, free college education, culture and many of my rights. But I don’t say that to complain I say that merely out of my faith.

“I have a desire to provide for the poor, bring hope to the hopeless, defend the defenseless, feed the hungry, com-fort the brokenhearted, and be a voice for the voiceless. I have an ambition to build relationships with those orphans who need somebody to love them, to listen to them, to bring them hope, and share with them the ultimate Truth. And if that means I give so they can gain, then so be it.”

Morgan has certainly learned how to live simply over the past few months. Not only did she witness extreme poverty during her time in Africa, she experienced it her-self. There were times when Morgan did not have a penny to her name, and she frequently sold her shoes to buy train tickets (which explains why she arrived in Grand Rapids barefoot), but she also says she is more content than she has ever been in her life.

“I never want to go back to the life I was living. I never want to own anything of my own in this life,” Morgan said. “I can’t wait to die with $0 in my bank account someday. If I get something, I want to give it right back because through giving God reminds me how greatly blessed and rich I am internally.”

Finding a CauseThough she was accepted into colleges in the States,

Morgan has made her two-year missionary commitment to Africa. She will work with various organizations along side her current missionary organization Youth with a Mission (YWAM).

“I don’t tell people I saved 100 lives today or I fed 500 orphans to make myself look good,” Morgan said. “I say it to show you that you can make a difference. Look at me: I am your typical teenager who was sitting in high school less than one year ago. From experience, I tell you anything can happen when you start you realize you must be the change you wish to see in this world.”

Morgan’s first two months in South Africa were spent at a Discipleship Training School where speakers from all over the world were flown in to teach intensive theology

lectures, as well as how to survive in a poverty-stricken continent.

Morgan then spent the next three months working on various projects and ministries around the country from AIDS clinics, medical wards, prisons, remote villages, refugee camps, primary schools, churches and hundreds of orphanages. She even got the chance to speak in front of the United Nations. Morgan feels, however, that she has found her true passion in working with AIDS orphans.

“I held the dying children in my arms while they took their last breath, and I wrapped my arms around the brittle bones of the starving children, and I brought them comfort and hope,” Morgan said in her blog. “I have been reach-ing the unreached orphans, and I am embracing the joys hidden behind their tears. I want to be the one who uplifts their spirits and brings life to their souls.”

And now, Morgan can continue to do just that. One day while she and a few of her friends were walking through a slum, they heard yelping coming from a nearby shack, so they went to investigate. A woman hesitantly led them into the back room. What they found horrified them.

“In the back were these small cages, one after one after one,” Morgan said. “And there were four children in each of these cages. You would think they were literally animals. We just stood there speechless trying to grasp the reality.”

After two days, the woman who had been running the shack no longer showed up.

“There we sat, three young girls with 22 AIDS orphans. That day was the start,” Morgan said, “of their orphanage.”

She and her friends had very little money and they barely spoke the language, but they knew that they had to do something. This past year, Morgan and a close mission-ary friend became the Founder and Co-Founder.

“We were able to properly register our orphanage and obtain government support to send the children to a nearby primary school. We have a staff of volunteers from the community that we trained to do the basic cooking and cleaning jobs,” Morgan said. “We currently have 52 AIDS orphans now as the number increases and decreases based on the daily death rate.”

The Dirty WorkThese moments with the children are the parts of Africa

that Morgan loves, but, of course, there are times when her life is less than enjoyable. Morgan lives and works in very dangerous townships and villages and, as she says, safety is always an issue. Her home has been broken into several times, and she has been held at gunpoint twice. As a white American, many people in South Africa also discriminate against Morgan.

“Everyday is a new day. I wake up every morning, and go out with the thought ‘If I don’t make it back, so be it. But I know that I’m doing God’s work,’” Morgan said, “and I have his protection. This reality has really made me thankful for the gift of life. Seriously, just waking up and being able to say today is a another day is a gift in itself.”

Morgan also had the unfortunate circumstance of being in Kenya when violence erupted there a few months ago.

Personality Profile

Loss of Ignorance

Loss, continued on page 26


arouses curiosity; reason for sketch is made clear early in story

• emphasizes fresh angle; individualizes person

• colorful, lively presentation; effective form/style

• reflects adequate research, sound interviewing tech-niques from a variety of sources

• avoids encyclopedic listing of subjects accomplish-ments


emotions• proper diction/grammar

Personality ProfileThe personality profile captures the life, interests and accomplishments of well known or interest-ing people, based on interviews. The subject(s) should have experiences, thoughts and accomplish-ments worth reporting. Anecdotes add to the personality profile.


1 Christy Duan Novi

2 Paige Robnett Wylie E Groves

3 Britta Eastburg Forest Hills Central

4 Stephanie Farr Laingsburg

M Kaitlyn Rabach Mona Shores

16 A Cut Above

Diversity Coverage

Irene FarnsworthCommunity High School

Although normally Iranian teenagers just pay the police not to press charges, all of the teenagers were arrested and taken to the police station immediately, almost none of the girls had been wearing their hijabs, they were listening to illegal American music, watching illegal American television, and worst of all, men and women had been there together. A typical Friday night in Tehran, Iran.

Niki Mirza was one of the uncovered girls there, and although she was only 12 years old, she was taken into cus-tody too.

“It sounds really bad, but life’s still really fun- even at the police station we were joking around, and the guys were touching the girls to piss off the police. We were laughing,” she smiled. Pausing a moment, Niki continued, “You have to be really brave.”

She was released earlier than the others that night when her parents came to get her, although she was forced to sign a document swearing that she would never again attend a party or go anywhere without her head covered.

Now 19 and in the process of applying for dual citi-zenship, Niki lives in Ann Arbor and attends Washtenaw Community College. She came to Ann Arbor with her par-ents five years ago, and remembers keenly the humiliation of immigrating here.

“In the airports [in the United States], they strip you down, they search absolutely everything. Like, stripped down naked.” Wherever she travels within America too, she is “randomly selected” when she passes through security to be searched.

She arrived just in time to start her freshman year at Pioneer High School, where adjusting was incredibly painful and difficult as well.

“I barely spoke English, so I had three ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.” At Pioneer, she said, this is not exactly a popularity-booster. “My first two years were so bad. It’s like Mean Girls, really, especially if you’re an ESL student, the groups are so separate. No one else will talk to you.

Although parts of living in the United States, like making friends, were hard, it was also at times very challenging to live in Iran. Young Iranian women are faced with many decisions and obstacles, such as the everyday conflict over what to wear.

The government prohibits women from showing their hair or bodies in public, requiring that women fully cover their heads and wear modest clothing. Niki never covers her hair, but many Irani women try to come up with creative ways to do so, balancing their modern lives with their desires to adhere to laws and religious beliefs.

“You’ll see many young girls with no scarf, or with the smallest, most brightly colored scarf that doesn’t even really cover.” Niki said, “And she will never wear such a tight shirt, but it will cover.”

Going out without a headscarf can mean serious problems with the police, but many are willing to risk it. “Whatever makes the government mad, we do it,” she said,

“The government tries to stop the young people but they’re equally powerful.”

One of Niki’s friends in Tehran sent her a video clip online recently in which a female police officer attempts to order a teenage girl to cover her hair. “And the girl!” Niki laughed, “She starts beating up the policewoman, and the woman just runs away!”

While amusing, this is an exceptional story in a country where nearly all aspects of law are extremely biased against women. Only recently have women been granted the author-ity to be police officers, and they are still not allowed to become judges because, as Niki says, “They [the government] consider that a woman cannot be objective enough.”

In the eyes of Iranian law, the life of a woman in con-sidered to be worth exactly half that of a man. Therefore, the death of two women is equal to that of one man, and a woman’s statement as a witness is not considered as valid as a man’s.

This is a big problem especially in rape cases, because so often it is the testimony of a woman against a man. Last year a 17-year-old girl was walking in a park when three men came up and tried to rape her. The girl had a knife and stabled one of the men in self-defense. He later died, and she was sentenced to death for murder. She spent two years await-ing her execution on death row while the courts swarmed with objections.

Numerous activist organizations all over Iran (and inter-national as well) were outraged by the case and managed to circulate a petition collecting 35,000 signatures campaigning for her release. Finally, after they raised an additional $45,000 to bribe the officials, she was freed.

“It’s so crazy,” said Niki of rape laws, “because she would also have been put there [on death row] if she had actually been raped. That is also a crime.” Niki belongs to a MySpace group that helped fight for this woman, although they concentrate mainly on outlawing the execution of juvenile criminals. In Iran, minors can and frequently are sentenced to death: One of the younger victims Niki remembers was 15.

Along with many other Iranians, she is very upset about certain circumstances and the laws in Iran right now, but she seems optimistic for its future.

She admits that there were problems but said, “It’s not like what’s on the news. They show the worst stuff. Like, I don’t know where they find the people that are carrying ‘I hate the US’ signs. I’ve never seen that! We don’t hate the US.” She feels that although the youth rebellion against the Iranian government is strong, it’s not enough to oust the cur-rent administration. “We’re hoping that the US can help us somehow… although that would also be bad.”

Regardless of current problems, she misses all of her family, friends, and life in Tehran. “I miss all the stores… no offense, but it’s kind of boring here!” Niki laughed, “I want to go back this summer, but I am afraid that something will happen and he [Bush] will close the border so I can’t come back. That would be the worst.” She hopes that some-day the country will be more stable and offer more opportu-nities, and that she will be able to live in Tehran once more.

Guidelines• topic relevant to school

or students and reflects lifestyles, challenges and potentials of those from a diverse background

• sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity

• shows thorough reporting skills though research and interviewing


• balanced, fair and sensitive presentation


• proper diction/grammar; use of punctuation

Diversity CoverageStories tell about lifestyles, challenges, and potential of those from a diverse background. Will cover more than plight, also includes how the subjects dealt with it.


1 Mega Birkett Grand Haven

2 Sally Alsatoo Wylie E Groves

3 Christina Pillsbury Loy Norrix

4 Irene Farnsworth Community

Rebel dancing, rebel music

A Cut Above 17

Environmental Story

Guidelines• topic relevant to the school

or students and covers health, science or environ-mental story that is infor-mative

• sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity

• shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing


• balanced, fair and sensitive presentation



Environmental StoryThis story will focus on an environmental, health or science topic. Itcan be a straight news story or an investigative piece.


1 Nicole Leonard Royal Oak

2 Tommy Pendy Grosse Pointe South

3 Jordan Kristopik Seaholm

4 Bella Decker Community

5 Elyse Croce & Anthony Scalvini Brownell

Staph infections sack three varsity playersTommy PendyGrosse Pointe South High School

In the last several weeks, three South varsity football players have been diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Athletic Director Brandon Slone said. These are the first reported cases of MRSA at South since Slone became athletic director.

Former Athletic Directors Matt outlaw and Tim Bearden (now administrators at Grosse Pointe North) did not experience any cases of MRSA during their tenures dating to the 2001 school year.

MRSA is a type of bacterial “staph infection” that is most commonly found in the skin, said Dr. Nancy White, senior staff physician at Henry Ford Health System’s Department of Orthopedics and Family Medicine.

The outbreak of MRSA at South has been contained, and all three infected players have fully recovered. However, what is a concern is that MRSA is out there and has the potential to spread.

An outbreak of MRSA can be avoided through proper hygiene techniques, but if left untreated, MRSA can “eat flesh,” cause pneumonia, organ damage and bloodstream infections, according to “Training and Conditioning” magazine. However, if caught early on, MRSA is treatable with antibiotics.

It is believed that MRSA hit the South team because players were leaving sweaty, unclean equipment in the locker rooms for extended periods of time, Slone said. Because of this, the locker rooms became a “breeding ground” for the MRSA bacteria.

Staph bacteria are found on everyone’s skin, but can infiltrate the body through open wounds, White said. Therefore, skin-to-skin contact and tightly packed areas can also contribute to the spread of MRSA in athletic set-tings.

“Athletes are commonly in close quarters,” said White. “They’re touching each other frequently, especially in football, because of it being a contact sport.”

After the three players were diagnosed with MRSA, measures were taken to prevent it from taking place again, Slone said. Players were encouraged to take their jerseys and pads home to be washed every day after practice and were sent home to parents regarding prevention and iden-tification of MRSA.

On September 22 the locker rooms were disinfected, and the football field was cleaned, disinfected and applied with an anti-microbial treatment on October 5. Even with the precautions, Slone said prevention of future cases of MRSA is up to the players themselves.

“It will still ultimately come down to the players being responsible and accountable for getting their stuff home and getting it cleaned,” said Slone. “I think if people are diligent in washing their hands, taking their clothes home, and keeping those things washed, a lot of this can be prevented.”

The outbreak of MRSA has not affected the team’s play, said Michael Harrison ’08. However, the outbreak has made everyone a little bit more cautious and a little bit more careful about staying clean.

“All of the players who had it are performing at their best,” said Harrison. “It’s a good thing that we caught it before it spread and got anyone seriously injured.”

Harrison said that he took measures to protect himself from the bacteria.

“I wrapped all my open wounds on my arms, around my hands,” said Harrison. “All my pads and all my clothes I bleached and disinfected. Other than that, I’ve just been bringing my stuff home (to wash) and making sure that I shower after practice.”

Education is a key to spreading the word about MRSA, said White. Lack of knowledge about MRSA is what makes it a threat to football teams.

“We’re really good about educating the people (about MRSA) in wrestling and gymnastics,” said White. “Maybe we just have to be better about doing that in football.”

Commonly found in hospital settings, MRSA gener-ally targets individuals with weakened immune systems, White said. However, in recent years MRSA has started to affect people with strong immune systems too.

“The reason why it’s (MRSA) is such a problem is that it’s affecting our healthy population as well (as the unhealthy population), outside of the hospital setting,” said White.

However well one is protected, sometimes MRSA is unavoidable in the athletic arena, because of the contact with others, said White. Identifying MRSA is usually the key to stopping its spread. It generally appears more “angry” or red than other skin infections. It can look like a harmless pimple or a spider bite, but the only way to really tell if it is indeed MRSA s to have a culture taken of the infected area.

Even though overuse of antibiotics like penicillin and methicillin in the past have contributed to the fact that these staph infections are “resistant” doesn’t mean that they are untreatable, White said. There are certain kinds of oral antibiotics that work to destroy MRSA, such as bactrim or clindamycin, and patients are generally on those antibiotics for 10-14 days.

18 A Cut Above

Alternative Story Form

Guidelinesshould be a story told in a • unique, alternative way.this is not a traditional story • as in inverted pyramid, news anecdotal, analysis or feature narrative.story is told with quick facts, • it’s a quick read that pro-vides readers with a unique approach to a story.while the read is quick, • ASF should provide reader with complete information. Readers should not be left asking questions.organization is such that story • is easy to follow and logical, even though it’s in an alterna-tive way.

• ASF is visually engrossing, bringing readers in through strong use of typography and other types of visuals.

• should not be packaged with another story or part of another story.

• stands totally alone as a story-telling device.

• submission only considered if submitted with entire page on which it was featured.

Alternative Story FormASF consists of a whole story told in an alternative way. It can consist of any-thing that is not a tradition-al story form. There should be visual destinations, good use of typography, easy to scan, well organized, can provide quick facts and deep context. It should not include traditional narrative.


1 Lillian Xiao Novi

2 Taylor Mantyla & Brent Koaches HH Dow

3 Alexis Holley North Farmington

4 Greg Smith & Sean Kellehan South Lake

M Rachel Premack & Chelsea Merrill Brownell

By Greg Smith & Sean Kellehan, South Lake High School

A Cut Above 19

Sports Feature Story

Guidelines• lead captures attention,

arouses curiosity• emphasizes new element,

fresh angle• colorful, lively presentation;

effective form/style• reflects adequate re-search,

sound interviewing tech-niques

• avoids summaries of pub-lished materials


reader’s emotions• proper diction/grammar

Sports FeatureStories may include per-sonality profile, informa-tive, interpretive (why), and/or human interest specifically related to sports.



2 Luigi Pizzo Utica

3 Stephanie Steinberg North Farmington

4 Sam Cusmano & Alyse Snyder Haslett

M Geoff Welsher & Andy Hryciuk Brownell

Gabi MooreMidland High School

Sweat drips down foreheads of teenagers packed into a basement, while empty beer bottles and plastic cups are scattered on the floor, the rest at home in a student athlete’s hand. Loud music pounds and vibrates through the room at decibels unhealthy for human ears, but no one seems to notice. Alcohol has consumed a high school athletic team celebrating a win, and the next day they will feel the effects of sickness that failed to register the night before.

While all Midland High students are years away from their twenty-first birthday, basement parties like this are not all that uncommon in Midland. Athletes, among other students, drink and party as though there is noth-ing wrong with their behavior. Students brag about how “wasted” they got over the weekend’ MySpace pictures and cell phone photos show wild parties with alcoholic beverages.

The prevalence of drinking“The chain has to be broken,” varsity basketball coach

Eric Krause said. “Drinking almost seems like a ritual of passage. Athletes start thinking they’re invincible and they have elevated status among their peers. They also see their older teammates doing it and getting away with it.”

Senior Jeremy Sauve, a football player and track run-ner, said, “After games, on a Saturday night, especially after winning or something, drinking is really notice-able then.” Sauve said drinking is extremely prominent with athletes, but was quick to add that they don’t feel they are above the law simply because they are athletes. He said that there is generally no fear of getting caught for drinking and students don’t worry that what they’re doing is illegal.

“I hate when people say ‘Oh, that guy just got away with drinking because he’s a football player,’” Sauve said. He knows that there is a chance that he could get caught and doesn’t drink during football season because of it. He is going to Alma College next year to play football, and said that football is too important to him to risk getting kicked off the team.

“Track, I don’t mind. If I get in trouble for drink-ing during track season, that’s not a big deal,” he said. “I wouldn’t get caught dead drinking during the football season.

Despite the knowledge that they could get caught and kicked off their team, student athletes still drink and party for various reasons.

While Krause feels that younger students start drink-ing because their older teammates do, Sauve said that is not always the case. He said most athletes drink because they want to, not because others tell them to. If someone chooses not to drink they are not ridiculed.

“The guys know I don’t drink during football season, and they don’t try to get me to do it,” Sauve said.

Sauve said that the general disbelief that they would

get caught fuels athlete partying. There is not much to fear for many athletes whose parents give them access to alcohol and let their kids and their friends drink at their house. Sauve said that most often, parties are held at houses where the parents may say there is no alcohol allowed, but they do not enforce the rules.

Searching for a solutionWith so many students drinking so often, many won-

der if random testing could stop athletes’ illegal behavior. The intention of these tests would not be to get athletes kicked off the team, but to prevent students from drink-ing in the first place. They could provide coaches and administrators with proof that students were drinking to back up rumors of partying. Krause said that he has a very good idea of who drinks and parties on his basket-ball team, adding even that if he asks students for names, they will tell him. However, he cannot do anything about it without concrete evidence.

“To a degree my hands are tied,” Krause said. “If I’m aware of a rumor that there’s partying going on, even if I think I know names, if I don’t have tangible evidence to penalize them, I can’t go on that rumor. It puts myself and the school district at legal risk.”

He said that without physical proof, angry parents could sue if he had accused their students of drinking or participating in illegal activities and they denied it.

“On the other hand, I feel like I’m just looking the other way, which doesn’t feel right,” Krause said. “If there was a way we could test athletes to see if they had done something illegal, and legally get away with it, I’m all for it. If kids knew that there was a way to prove the unsub-stantiated rumors they would make better choices.”

Krause said that especially in the long run, the fear that they could be caught drinking would deter athletes, and it would give confirmation of suspected athletes’ partying, rather than simply going on rumors. While Krause feels that random testing would be beneficial to the athletic program and the athletes, he said that with today’s age of budget cuts; it is a luxury that the school cannot afford.

Krause said that he has been told by downtown administration that the likelihood of random test-ing depends on the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). Costs of testing would be high, but costs of legal battles with angry parents would be higher. If the MHSAA backed high schools financially and publicly supported testing, school districts would be willing to test their athletes and take more extreme mea-sures to prevent drinking.

Is testing the answer?Sauve said that he felt random testing would be a

waste. He said there are too many excuses athletes could use, and that knowing he could be randomly tested for alcohol on a weekend would not stop him from drink-ing. He added that while he has not gotten in trouble for

Sports Drinks

Drinks, continued on page 22

20 A Cut Above

Semi-Superstar

Sports Column

Sports ColumnEach story must consist of samples of two columns under the same standing head, authorized by the same writer(s). Each col-umn must carry bylines or other writer identification to indicate the personal nature of the content. Each entry in this category must be written by a dif-ferent writer(s).

Guidelines• sharp, attention-getting lead• expresses personal opin-

ion; uses consistent style; demonstrates knowledge of sports

• reflects thought/research, freshness, individuality; avoids cliches

• effective use of facts/ quotes or supportive material

• informative, interesting, entertaining

• upholds journalistic integrity• sentences, paragraphs of

varied length; written clear-ly, concisely and vividly



1 Matt Evans Novi

2 Evan Welch Grosse Pointe South

3 Kevin Cubr Fenton

4 Chris Hull Ithaca

M Brianna Hines Mona Shores

Chris HullIthaca High School

Growing up, I never lay in bed and dreamt of being a Model UN captain or scoring a 30 on my ACT. I didn’t even know what those things were. My supreme fantasy was to be a varsity basketball player, coming out to the “The Final Countdown.” And now I’ve done it. My mom even talked me into getting one of those snazzy varsity jackets so I can put my letter next that hard-earned tennis one.

I’m a whole 5’10” and 150 pounds of average athletic ability. There’s one stat my dear mother has kept since I started playing high school basketball: playing time. I played a grand total of two minutes, eight-point-eight seconds over the first two games. And it was pure bliss. To shed the warm-ups, hear my friends and teammates and town erupt in cheers as my name is announced because they have some sort of understanding as to what I’ve had to do to earn that precious time. I put 18 years of basket-ball mediocrity into those two minutes.

I remember never having any trouble getting up “early” to go to Saturday Morning Basketball. How could I? Because of the alignment of my third through sixth grade

years and his high school career, I got to hone my skills for four years under the tutelage of my hero, J.T. Jones. Now I’m that guy. Well, sort of. My dad told me about going to his accountant’s office and having a secretary tell him about how her son had been talking all week about how Chris Hull the varsity basketball player had helped him on Saturday. Talk about an ego trip.

All through my experience with sports, the concept of being a team is stressed above all else. I couldn’t ask for a better one. I know my role, and so do they. I have sort of embraced my legacy in “benchwarmership.” Just look at my column title. I think the reason I’m so comfortable with it is that I’ve never really been the butt of endless jok-ing about it. When I went in for the last 10.8 seconds of our first game, nobody laughed. Not the All-State center. Not the All-League point guard. Not the 6’6” sophomore who starts. They were cheering. To me, that’s a team.

Who knows why I’m even on the team. Maybe I was just good enough. Maybe it was a sort of sympathy thing after my year in exile as a statistician and filmographer (in other words, I got cut so I took stats and filmed games). But who cares? I certainly don’t. I’ve got a jersey, and that’s all that really matters to me. A dream may be altered, but it never dies. See you Friday night.

A Cut Above 21

Sports News Story

Josh CsapoFenton High School

Recent budgetary set backs of Michigan high schools have led many of them in search of financial aid. For a solution, school districts turned to privatization of coaches. One school, Atherton, was the first to embrace this act of financial recompense. From the administra-tive standpoint, the move to privatization is a practical one.

“Lack of state dollars means we either had to cut down on programs or start going to pay-to-play,” Ather-ton Athletic Director Ralph LaDuke said. “We didn’t want to affect the students.

Not wanting student athletes to have to pay for the right to play, the Atherton School District chose to privatize. However, because Fenton does charge student athletes, Athletic Director Mike Bakker does not see the need to privatize.

“We do the pay-to-play because it allows us to fund the programs in athletics that need it,” Bakker said. “The more athletes, the more money the program can obtain.”

An informal survey of student athletes showed that they would support privatization only if the school were to keep the same coaches. Unlike Atherton, 60 percent of Fenton’s coaches are in-house, meaning they are already staff members.

“Having coaches in class makes you more comfort-able,” senior Alex Reid said. “It creates a progressive atmosphere, and you can joke around.”

Under normal circumstances, schools have to pay an amount equal to 18 percent of salary money to the State retirement fund. To access this fund and be paid

retirement compensation, a staff member must work for 10 years. However, a coach only receives a third of a year for every season he coaches, therefore he must work 30 years to achieve those 10 years.

The school then puts money into this retirement system for people who will rarely ever be able to achieve the credentials required to access the money.

“Why would the district want to throw money into a system for people who will never see it again?” Bakker said. “Coaches do not work enough years of service or make enough money to get money back from the retire-ment system. With privatization, the coaches can have access to this money without having to work and pay more into the system.”

Under privatization, a school district, instead of pay-ing the retirement system pays a percent fee to a compa-ny who handles all the paper work and pay. The reduced percentage allows the district to increase salary toward the coaches, and for the district to lose less money by not having to put money into a wasteful system.

“Privatizing has obviously had a positive effect on the budget. It allows us to pay our coaches more, while also saving money,” LaDuke said. “We don’t have to affect the students, and we can even start improving the budget in other areas.”

Regardless of whether or not the salary of the coaches increased, the students surveyed agreed they would want Fenton to do the hiring. They did not want a random company sending people to coach.

“I think I would perform better for someone who wants to be here,” sophomore Morgan Campbell said. “I like that they’re here because they want to be, not because they’re paid.”

Saving on private matters

Guidelines• lead features interesting,

important angle• uses colorful, lively style• avoids cliches, editorializing• displays knowledge of sports;

uses understandable terms• shows research/interviewing

skills; emphasizes how and why

• effective use of facts/ quotes• proper diction/grammar; use

of the third person• unity/coherence

Sports NewsSports news stories may include general sports news or sports events and are constructed in news style.


1 Alli Good Novi

2 Elisabeth Dion HH Dow

3 Josh Csapo Fenton

4 Jennifer Gast Catholic Central

M Lauren Starke Mona Shores

22 A Cut Above

Sports Photo

Sports PhotoAny non-portrait action photo directly related to sporting events should be entered in this category. Photos will be judged on both the quality of the photo as printed and how it was used in the publica-tion.

Guidelines• effective cropping to center

of interest • clear, sharp details • good, sharp contrast with

varied levels of grays, black, and white or colors

• attracts, holds reader’s atten-tion

• avoids distracting back/ foreground

• all elements in photo com-bine with caption to tell story

• action, rather than posed photo

• captures dramatic moment


1 Scott Kelber Novi

2 Lauren Wagner Stoney Creek

3 Tyler Salisbury Northwest

4 Lindsey Fausett Laingsburg

M Cole Myhre Mona Shores

By Lauren Wagner, Stoney Creek High School

drinking, friends he knew that had received MIPs had continued to drink even after they had been caught.

“When I do something that is questionable, I make sure to play it safe. It almost doesn’t seem real to me to get caught. If you’re smart you’re not going to get in trouble,” Sauve said.

Principal Michael Frazee said that parents, more than testing, play a role in preventing student drinking. While testing athletes for alcohol punishes them after the fact, parents play a key role in whether their students drink or not in the first place.

“People say, ‘What’s the difference between one student who drinks and another who doesn’t?’ and it all comes back to the upbringing by the parents,” Frazee said. He said testing has really not been an issue for administrators.

“It’s a community thing that just has yet to be put on the table,” he said. Midland is a town strongly focused on community involvement, and in order to implement athlete testing, it would need to be a community deci-sion. He feels that prevention of drinking is far more

important than enforcing the rules after they have been broken.

“The children that are time bombs are still time bombs,” Frazee said.

Parents need to provide rules and guide their children to the right path while administrators support the par-ents teaching. This proper raising of students needs to happen before they face the peer pressure to drink so that they make the right choice.

Krause said he wishes testing could become a real-ity and believes it would stop the athlete drinking. He said he hopes parents would be supportive of punishing students for illegal behavior rather than trying to protect their kids.

“To me it’s simple,” Krause said. “When my 3-year-old does something that would cause him harm, society expects me to stop him. When a 16-year-old is doing something that would cause him harm, society should expect me as an educator, to stop him. It would be nice if educators and parents could join together to help our youth rather than battling each other in court.”

Drinks, continued from page 19

A Cut Above 23

News/Feature Phototograph

News/Feature PhotoPhotos in this category should be non-portrait, non-sports photos based either on on-the-spot coverage of an event that had news value and time-liness, or on the drama and emotion characteristic of features. Photos will be judged on both the qual-ity of the photo as printed and how it was used in the publication.


of interest• clear, sharp details• good, sharp contrast with

varied levels of grays, black and white or colors


• avoids distracting back/ foreground

• all elements in photo com-bine with caption to tell story

• action, rather than posed photo

• underscores news/feature importance


1 Susan Manuel Saline

2 Lizzy Rinner Okemos

3 Ashley Harte Seaholm

4 Peter Loftus Plainwell


By Peter Loftus, Plainwell High School

Jolts, continued from page 13

drinks coffee to just stay awake. “During school, it just keeps me going,” she said.

Jones also relies on two Red Bulls to keep up her energy for cheerleading on game days. Using caffeine to improve athletic performance is a common specific usage. “Athletic studies have proven it enhances performance in athletics,” Dr. Grimshaw said. “So it’s really one of those things that has these beneficial effects, so people want more of it, but more is not better.” The stimulant makes the activation of the muscle more powerful.

However, Dr. Grimshaw suggests the best way to hold

energy throughout the day involves eating right and just the general rhythm of one’s daily life. “You want to have protein and carbohydrates together for all your meals in about equal amounts,” Dr. Grimshaw said. “And by doing that, your metabolism will be running smooth.” If the body’s metabolism rate is continually fluctuating, people are using energy inefficiently. Energy levels remaining at a steady rate last for longer quantities of time.

VanKrevelen is currently struggling to adjust back to a lifestyle without caffeine. While coping, VanKrevelen said, “I miss it. It’s hard to stay off it.”

24 A Cut Above

Portrait

PortraitPhotos in this category must show the personality and/or character of the people and/or animals photographed. No more than two subjects should be featured in the picture. Sports portraits should be entered in this category. Photos will be judged on both the quality of the photo as printed and how it was used in the publica-tion.


of interest • clear, sharp details • good, sharp contrast with

varied levels of grays, black, and white or colors

• attracts, holds reader’s attention

• avoids distracting back/fore-ground

• background appropriate for subject

• natural appearance rather than posed photo

• emphasizes personality of subject


1 Matt Evans Novi

2 Lauren Wagner Stoney Creek

3 Amanda Kramer Kearsley

4 Geneva Brunetti Shrine

M No winner

By Amanda Kramer, Kearsley High School

“Residency and enrollment is more than just the question of ‘where do you live,’ and many are under the assumption that that’s what it is. Residency involves a whole lot more than just where you live.”

None-the-less, for clarity, Wilson tried to distill the definition to two factors.

“One: You must have a qualifying residency in our dis-trict. And, two: you must reside in it,” Wilson said.

Groves registrar Karen Farner spends much of her year helping determine residency and talking with parents and students whose residency is in question. Like Wilson, Farner emphasized that the district’s goal is not just to kick students out of the district.

“If a student is forced to leave their home because of a situation in which they can no longer live in it, they are not asked to leave,” Farner said.

Duke believes that the district’s decision to call her residence in question violates the accommodation Farner depicted after her house in Waterford burned down.

“One the day I got home from camp, my house burned down, and then the next day we closed on our Bloomfield Hills house. So we didn’t have any houses left,” Duke said.

After the first part of her junior year, during which Duke had been attending Groves without a problem, she believed her residency was legitimate, even though the

house that burned down was in the city of Waterford. She came home to discover that if her residency could not be proven, she would have to leave Groves.

“Mr. Wilson called my parents on March 1st, my birthday, and said that I didn’t live in the district anymore and I couldn’t go to Groves,” Duke said. “I talked to a teacher about it the next day, and he said that I wasn’t able to tell him that I was kicked out of school, because if the teachers knew they wouldn’t be allowed to teach me.”

Duke’s new residence at 10 mile and Lahser was out of the Birmingham district, but based on the policy that stu-dents are grandfathered by their senior year, her removal was reversed, but not without disruption.

Duke missed school along with lecture notes, projects, and tests she was forced to make-up when she returned.

Farner explained that these disruptions are necessary to maintain a legitimate student population within the district.

“In all fairness to the tax-payers, it would not be right for us to enroll students who didn’t reside here,” Farner said.

Confusion about where exactly this district begins and ends is also an issue for some current or potential students. While enrolling students, Farner encountered

Groves, continued from page 6

Groves, continued on next page

A Cut Above 25

Editorial Cartoon

By Dan Zaharia, South Lyon High School

Editorial CartoonThis category includes only editorial cartoons. This cartoon appears on the editorial/opinion page. It makes a point and delivers commentary or opinion.

Guidelines• appears on editorial page• simple in design• shows high technical quality• centered on one topic• timely• subject familiar to reader in

everyday life• displays artistic talent• message succinctly stated


1 Dan Zaharia South Lyon

2 Tanner Martin Stoney Creek

3 Tim Martuch Fenton

4 Steve Cavanagh South Lake

M No winner

many parents who seem to be confused or unaware of these boundaries because these lines often cut across neighborhoods, so that a student, for example, who lives in a neighborhood across from Groves on Thirteen Mile Road may belong to the Southfield district, while the neighbor may belong to the Birmingham district. An example of this can be seen in a Beverly Hills neighbor-hood where a student living north of Northome on Woodhaven goes to Birmingham but a student just a few houses away living south of Southeom on Woodhaven would attend Southfield schools.

Farner agreed with Wilson that the process for deter-mining eligibility to attend a Birmingham school is more complicated than simply living within the district, but explained why she and other admissions officers feel that the boundaries are made clear to home owners.

“Within any community, your boundaries for school districts are very defined, and on people’s property taxes or when you’re buying a house, it says what school dis-trict you belong in. A lot of people think that if they are right on the line, they have a choice,” Farner said. “The only way that they would have a choice is if they were on

the boundary of a district that was a school of choice dis-trict, one that is able to accept students from anywhere in Oakland County.”

While residency conflicts that arise when parents initially try to enroll their student may stem from con-fusion about borders, Kroopnick countered that often those families that complain the most about subsequent removal from Birmingham Schools know what they are doing.

“Those who have committed fraud and would still argue the policies are not fair are not in a very good posi-tion because they are not innocent. Committing fraud is not an accidental; it’s deliberate,” Kroopnick said.

Because Birmingham is not a school of choice dis-trict, students and families in the area cannot choose to attend without paying tuition or without a valid resi-dence. Students and athletes without legitimate residence will more likely be removed because of the new penalties passed as the student body continues to grow.

“I would’ve loved to have been with my brothers on the field and at school,” Horner said, “but unfortunately things don’t happen the way we always want them to.”

Groves. continued from previous page

26 A Cut Above

Comic Strip

By Tiara Hill, Southfield High School


1 Dan Zaharia South Lyon

2 Tiara Hill Southfield

3 Josh Loney Andover

4 C. J. Leonard Shrine

M Griffin Kiegiel Brownell

Comic StripEach installment of a comic strip counts as a separate entry. The pur-pose of the comic strip is to entertain.

Guidelines• entertaining• simple in design• shows high technical

quality• centered on one topic• timely• subject familiar to reader

in his everyday life• displays artistic talent• message succinctly

stated

against Morgan.“Everyday is a new day. I wake up every morning, and

go out with the thought ‘If I don’t make it back, so be it. But I know that I’m doing God’s work,’” Morgan said, “and I have his protection. This reality has really made me thankful for the gift of life. Seriously, just waking up and being able to say today is a another day is a gift in itself.”

Morgan also had the unfortunate circumstance of being in Kenya when violence erupted there a few months ago.

“We had to cross the border from Kenya into Uganda,” Morgan said. “We got out, but we had to walk 12 hours across nothing, just dust and plain. It kind of reminded me of the book “Holes,”” she joked afterwards.

Morgan has learned to cope with the daily violence and suffering she witnesses, but it obviously affects her deeply. She tries to find the positive in the pain.

“I see death pretty much every day there,” Morgan said. “It’s not unusual to have someone die in my arms. And it sounds creepy, but I think I’ve learned to find beauty in death. It’s a beautiful thing because you know these people have AIDS; you know they’re not going to survive. But you’re happy for them. You see them living life to the fullest, and you see the smiles behind their tears.

I feel very blessed to actually be able to see the real smile behind the tears of Africa. I’d rather make the sacrifice and hold these children in my own two arms and give them the first, and sometimes last, love they will ever receive, than watch them die alone screaming and crying in their cribs, like the majority of them do. Whether you’re black, white, rich or poor or have AIDS, you are human and no human on this earth deserves to be treated any less than one another.”

Fortunately, Morgan’s sacrifice has been rewarding. As she said in her blog:

“My body is covered in bruises and my weight is drop-ping, but my heart is healthier than it’s ever been before.”

Becoming AfricanThe African children Morgan plays with on the street

and takes care of in her orphanage are not used to the color of her skin or the texture of her hair, and Morgan sometimes struggles to overcome racial barriers.

“They touch my arms expecting me to feel different,” she wrote in her blog. “It makes me sad to think that just because I am white, I am considered something special. Spoiled is what I am, and they are the special ones. I

Loss, continued from page 15

Loss, continued on next page

A Cut Above 27

Illustration

IllustrationThis category includes photo illustration, origi-nal artwork or original computer artwork used to establish a theme or mood with the intent to enhance any news/feature/sports article.

Guidelines• clearly develops a theme or

mood to enhance story• displays artistic talent within

potential for expression using art, photography or computer

• photos offer good, sharp contrast with varied levels of grays, black and white

• art shows knowledge of composition, line and shad-ing


• uses color, screens, typogra-phy and detail effectively

• sizes and placement draw reader’s attention to story without overwhelming content

• shows thought and creativ-ity


1 Staff South Lyon

2 Bradley Linder Portage Central

3 Maria Brundage Dexter

4 Quinn Burrell Community

M Courtney Susterich Mona Shores

By Quinn Burrell, Community High School

wish to embrace each of them. I tell them I am the same, just a different color.”

Despite Morgan’s outwardly differences, she feels she is inwardly becoming more and more a part of the African culture.

“We go into these villages and slums, and these people have nothing,” she said. “They have no food, no money, no water, but all they want to do is give the little they do have. That’s their culture. I guess that’s the part of me where I feel I’m not just a missionary in Africa. Every minute of every day someone is getting murdered, robbed, raped, abused or abducted; therefore as a mis-sionary I am bringing hope and a revelation to those Africans who have and who are searching for their true value in this world.”

According to Morgan, the culture in Africa places more value on the individual and community than on self-focused pursuits. Everyone runs on “Africa time,” she says, because everyone takes the time to stop and listen, and people don’t rush to get to places. Now that she is back in the States, Morgan misses the relaxed pace of African life.

This March, Morgan will take a plane back to South Africa for the next few years, but right now, she focuses on sharing her story, promoting change and raising financial partnership for her long-term missionary com-mitment.

“Africa has my heart, and I will not let anything stop me. I am going to live my faith, even if it means I lose my life in the process of saving others,” she said.

Loss, continued from previous page

28 A Cut Above

Information Graphic

Information GraphicThis category includes charts, graphs or diagrams created by hand or by com-puter and used to supplement or replace written content and give the reader information in a visual form.

Guidelines• clearly enhances the story• visuals help clarify, simplify or

visualize information• visually attractive• avoids excessive lines and/or

illustrations that might con-fuse the reader but shows effective detail

• entertaining and/or informa-tive

• clear lines and even strokes as opposed to retraced or broken lines

• taken advantage of art of computer technology

• uses color, screens, typogra-phy and placement effec-tively


1 Jade Marquez Jackson

2 Alex Meyer Utica

3 Josh Freed Andover

4 Nathan Moore Haslett

M No winner

By Jade Marquez, Jackson High School

A Cut Above 29

Advertising Layout

Advertising LayoutThis category includes ads for which students have created the artwork or pho-tography, written heads and copy and done the layout. Professionally created logos may be used. Ads should be attractive, informative and give all essential informa-tion. This entry is a single advertisement, not a page of advertisements.

Guidelines• copy provides desired infor-

mation• copy appropriate: concise,

specific and fast moving• copy attempts to motivate the

reader• illustrations/photos clear• parts of the ad assembled to

give interesting appearance (balance)

• gaze motion or eye movement arranged properly

• distinctive: simplicity, action, emphasis, color, photography

• standing details attractively arranged (trademark, name, address)


1 Kyle Dooley Saline

2 R. V. Mendoza Flushing

3 Nick Brown Fenton

4 Katie Alfonsi South Lake

By R. V. Mendoza, Flushing High School

30 A Cut Above

Front Page/News Magazine Style

Front Page MagazinePage contains nameplate and references to inside stories. Page generates reader interest and uses effective photos and/or artwork. Page will be evaluated for overall use of space.

Guidelines• attractive nameplate,

harmonizes with design, includes date, issue, volume, school, city and state

• cover should be considered work of art

• strongly relates to the inside contents

• maintains visual interest• cover illustration (if used)

may be compelling in size with a possible teaser head-line depicting the mood of the story

• photos effectively cropped, of varied size, shape, emphasizing action

• cover can refer readers to inside pages


1 Gabi Moore & Nate Zemanek Midland

2 Staff Groves

3 Maria Brundage Dexter

4 Sean Kellehan South Lake


By Maria Brundage, Dexter High School

A Cut Above 31

Front Page/Newspaper Style

Front Page-NewspaperPage contains nameplate. No advertising used on this page. Page will be evaluated for content and design for overall use of space.

Guidelines• attractive nameplate, harmo-

nizes with design, includes date, issue, volume, school, city, and state

• page generates reader inter-est; showcases important content

• sound, journalistic style of writing

• maintains visual interest in lower half of page

• consistent use of headline styles/type faces

• photos effectively cropped, of varied size, shape, emphasiz-ing action

• demonstrates effective graphic style, with graphic devices contributing to impact of page

• clear relationships demon-strated between story and related pictures/art

• cutlines stand out from body copy; effective lead-ins used for longer cutlines


1 Eric Perkey South Lyon

2 Darin Smith HH Dow

3 Josh Freed Andover

4 Stephanie Farr Laingsburg

By Stephanie Farr, Laingsburg High School

32 A Cut Above

Story Package

Story PackageContent should be based on one significant topic built around a dominant story packaged with sec-ondary stories. Does not need to be a true spread or full page design

Guidelines• package generates reader

interest; showcases strongest content

• one dominant story ele-ment and graphic element, packages with secondary elements in form of stories/graphic

• visual elements tie package together to create cohe-siveness, even if package extends to another non-con-secutive page or does not fill an entire page

• graphic devices, if used, con-tribute to overall impact of package

• design reflects effective graphic style, personality of publication


• content covers appropriate, timely issues/topics

• stories written in sound, jour-nalistic style

• headlines get smaller in rela-tion to importance of ele-ments in package


1 Nicole Croce L’Anse Creuse North

2 Olivia Kozlowski Waterford Kettering

3 Josh Freed, Jillian Kushner & Jason Greenspan Andover

4 Staff South Lake

M Madison Dettlinger Brownell

By Nicole Croce, L’Anse Cresuse North High School

A Cut Above 33

Editorial-Opinion Page/Spread

Editorial Opinion Page/SpreadPage will be evaluated for content and design. At least one editorial must appear on the page(s) entered. Other items may include columns, bylined opinion, polls, surveys, reviews, letter and cartoons. The masthead is normally on the opinion page. No advertising should appear on the editorial page, but may be used on the op-ed page.

Guidelines• includes masthead with statement of responsibility

for publication• graphic devices, if used, contribute to overall

impact of page• cartoon, illustrations are attractive, understandable,

using shadings/ screenings• design reflects effective graphic style, personality

of publication• opinion supported by facts, research and examples• ads not included on editorial page• strong visual center of interest• consistent use of headline styles/type faces• editorial should be unsigned but clearly identifi-

able through standing heads and page ID, column width and/or type size.

• content covers appropriate, timely issues/topics• stories written in sound, journalistic style


1 Dana Santure Novi

2 Heather Bicknell & Amy Pickering HH Dow

3 Chas Sloan Dexter

4 Morgan Gray Laingsburg

M Sam Kuipers Mona Shores

By Dana Santure, Novi High School

34 A Cut Above

By Jenny Kilduff, Portage Central High School

Feature Page/Spread

Feature Page/SpreadPages will be evaluated for content and design. Content may be based on a single story, a package of related stories, or diverse feature stories. Advertising may or may not in incorpo-rated into the page design.

Guidelines• page generates reader inter-

est; showcases strongest content

• strong visual center of inter-est; page maintains visual interest throughout

• consistent use of headline styles/typefaces; special types restricted to unique packaging of a single ele-ment

• photos effectively cropped, of varied size, shape, emphasiz-ing action

• demonstrated effective graphic style with graphic devices contributing to impact of page

• clear relationships demon-strated between story and related pictures, art

• content reflects student interest

• stories written according to sound journalistic style



2 Jenny Kilduff Portage Central

3 Tori Cowger Fenton

4 Stephanie Farr & Sarah Dolan Laingsburg

M Katie Carlson Mona Shores

A Cut Above 35

Sports Page/SpreadPages will be evaluated for content and design. Content is restricted to sports. Advertising may or may not be included on these pages.

Guidelines• avoids sports jargon, cliches

• strong visual center of inter-est; visually attractive top and bottom

• demonstrates knowledge of subject

• consistent use of headline styles/typefaces; head sizes indicate importance of story

• cutlines stand out from body copy; effective lead-ins used for longer cutlines

• graphic devices and ads, if used, contribute to impact of page, are attractively pack-aged, and encourage reader-ship

• clear relationship between story and related pictures/ art; potential for each story to draw readers

• photos effectively cropped, of varied size, shape, and emphasizing action

• page design reflects person-ality, contributes to attrac-tiveness of page


1 Marcellus Sanabria Everett

2 Nate Frisbie Portage Central

3 Christine Lewis Forest Hills Central

4 Lauren Forrest Laingsburg

M Courtney Susterich Mona Shores

By Marcellus Sanabria, Everett High School

Sports Page/Spread

36 A Cut Above

News Page/Spread

News Page/SpreadPages will be evaluated for content and design. Content is restricted to news. Advertising may or may not be included on these pages.

Guidelines• most important story is in

top half of page• graphic devices, if used,

contribute to overall impact of page

•design reflects effective graphic style, personality of publication

• strong visual center of inter-est


• content covers appropriate, timely issues/topics

•stories written in sound, jour-nalistic style

•headlines get smaller as they go down the page


1 Alli Good Novi

2 Shelby Riggle HH Dow

3 Pauline Bateman & Kaylee Hamlin Holt

4 Nathan Moore Haslett

M Emily Cervone & Sammy Scoggin Brownell

By Shelby Riggle, HH Dow High School

A Cut Above 37

Entertainment Page/Spread


1 Cameron Massey Midland

2 Sarah Bowman & Emily Thomas Stoney Creek

3 Vicari Vollmar Fenton

4 Erin Shadowens East Grand Rapids

M Brianna Goryl & Jenn Steger Mona Shores

Guidelines• page generates reader interest; showcases strongest content• strong visual center of interest; page maintains visual interest

throughout• includes logos/labels to separate types of entertainment (books,

videos, music, etc)• consistent use of headlines styles/typefaces; special types restricted

to unique packaging of a single element•photos effectively cropped, of varied size, shape, emphasizing action• demonstrates effective graphic style with graphic devices contribut-

ing to impact of page•clear relationships demonstrated between story and related pictures,

art •cutlines stand out from body copy; effective lead-ins used for longer

cutlines•content reflects student interests•stories written according to sound journalistic style

Entertainment Page/SpreadPages will be evaluated for content and design. Content is restricted to features and news dealing with entertainment (music, plays, movies, reviews). Advertising may or may not be included on these pages.

By Sarah Bowman & Emily Thomas, Stoney Creek High School

38 A Cut Above

Photo Story


1 Alex Cotton & Lydia Coutre Grand Haven

2 Jacqueline Owens Wylie E Groves

3 Tyler Salisbury Northwest

4 Peter Loftus, Josh Schauer & Troy Bingham Plainwell


Guidelines• page includes at least three

or four photos on related theme

• headline and cutlines are evident

• byline is included• copy, if used, is well-written

and appropriate• photos are of good quality• dominant photo is evident• pictures work together to

tell the story

Photo StoryA photo story would include the use of at least three or four photos on a related theme to tell a story. It must include headline and captions and may include copy. Judging will be on the overall impact of the contests and layout. Submit tear sheet only.

By Tyler Salisbury, Northwest High School

A Cut Above 39

Professionally Published Page

Professionally Published PagePage has be to published in a professional newspa-per. Send complete page. Page will be judged on stories, design and pho-tography.

Guidelines• shows balance of news,

sports, feature, opinion, in-depth

• presents evidence of good design (modular, dominant element, visually appealing, etc.)

• page is clearly identified as school/student page

• flag is evident with name of school, address, date, etc.

• distinctive style is apparent• editorial is placed in a dis-

tinctive location on page• consideration of audience

is evident (relevant topic, issues covered)


1 Staff L’Anse Creuse North

2 Staff Fraser

3 Drew Pompa, Kevin Cubr & Lauren Zepeda Fenton

4 Steve Cavanagh, Julie MacDonald, Jennifer MacDonald & Katie Bimberg South Lake

M No winner

By Staff, Fraser High School

Documents

2007-08 A Cut Above, Newspaper