Accents

Southern Interscholastic Press Association • USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications • April 2013 • Issue 3

When I first arrived at the Marriott Hotel in Columbia to attend the Carolina Journalism Institute, I was both excited and terrified. I was terrified that my roommates wouldn’t

like me, that I’d do terrible in my Converging Media’s class, and whether or not I could really take care of myself for an entire week. But at the same time I was excited to be meeting new people, to be able to make my own decisions, and to be learning more about websites. Back then, as I stood in front of those sliding doors, I wondered if I’d made the right decision in agreeing to attend. But looking back I know I did. I met the most amazing people, learned the most amazing things, and created memories that I’ll treasure for years to come.

Seeing as I was to take over as webmaster for my high school newspaper’s online edition, I signed up to take the Converging Media’s course. This course taught me how to design,create, and produce for my own website. Each day we were given an assignment that would eventually turn into an entire package, which we were meant to showcase at the awards ceremony at the end of the week. In addition to making our own websites, we each were creating online packages to post on the Converging Media’s class group website. I really enjoyed doing assignments because I was able to wander around Columbia and talk to people I met on the streets.

Another thing I enjoyed about CJI was that I got to share a room with three other girls; it was like a college experience. At first I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like my roommates and they wouldn’t like me, but after a few hours together we were all best friends. In the mornings we would fight over who would go use the bathroom in which order and if someone stayed in past their time, we would joke about how we should have made them go last. My roommates became like sisters to me, we spent lunches and dinners together, even though we all had separate classes, and we would show up in each other’s classes just to mess with each other. And on the last day of CJI we swapped numbers so that we could keep in touch with each other.

CJI was an amazing experience for me. I learned so much from my class, all of which I was able to bring back and incorporate into my school newspaper’s website. I enjoyed every second of CJI,from the cool teachers all the way to the goodbyes. I’ll never forget any of it. The week I spent there helped me to grow, not only as a journalist but as a person. And if I had the chance I’d go every year it’s hosted for the rest of my life.

As far as what I accomplished with my training and support, you can check out SPiN Wired at www.spinwired.com. I was surprised to be named the Journalist of the Year a few weeks ago. As I revised my winning portfolio for nationals, what did I rely on? My CJI class and a few mentors from Columbia. CJI does not end when the camp is over!

Brianna-Marie Ealy

South Pointe HS (S.C.) senior

How CJI helps fight zombies:

Cindy KoonSouth Pointe HS (S.C.)

newspaper and online adviser

When Brianna-Marie Ealy received word she had been named the 2013 Journalist of the Year by the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association, I don’t think she really believed it.

Not only did she have stiff competition from other fine student journalists from around the state, she also had the two editors-in-chief of SPiN print and online versions trying for the honor. The three each had amazing portfolios and every single one of them wants to major in some type of journalistic field.

I will never forget how Marie looked at me after she got the call from SCSPA director Karen Flowers telling her she won. Marie grinned and said, “Mrs. Koon, I think CJI made the difference.”

Marie, along with one of our Stallions from the Journalism I class, had taken me up last June on my usual spiel about why the Carolina Journalism Institute was well worth the time and money. I knew from personal experience that this intense summer camp is a perfect place to network with students and advisers from other schools in South Carolina and the Southeast.

Your mind and body are challenged as you run around the University of South Carolina’s campus trying to complete media packages for class. It combines real fun with real learning, two of the things that make humans unique. It helps you wake up from the zombie state you entered grinding away until school ended – anybody else feel like the walking dead right now?

Instead of being an add-on to the academic year, CJI helps resurrect your passion for journalism. Everyone I’ve ever talked to who attended, and South Pointe has had at least one or two students go each year, raves about what a positive, uplifting experience CJI was for them.

I have sent students who were well chaperoned and just fine on their own, and I have attended with a co-adviser and most of our staff years ago when I first started advising. Those times at CJI in the 1980s gave us time, opportunity and guidance to plan for the upcoming year. One year we did a complete redesign of our newspaper’s print version in Columbia with CJI on-the-spot advice. Students who attended without me quote from instructors or classmates as the CJI learning is shared throughout the school year.

One of the best things about CJI is that you’re energized with new ideas and new skills for the upcoming school year. Marie put it this way in her essay for Journalist of the Year:

“A position as webmaster for the newspaper’s online version opened up, and I found myself working as hard as I could to obtain it. I had only a little experience in working with websites and became skeptical about whether or not I could do it. But deep down inside I knew that if I didn’t at least try, then online would die the same way it had that February when the webmaster left to take another class. So I decided no matter what happened, I would do everything in my power to keep online up and running.

“Thankfully, I didn’t have to do everything on my own. I had a group of editors who were willing to work strictly for online, while all print journalists were required to contribute, a first. My adviser and principal were also very supportive and even arranged for me to attend the Carolina Journalism Institute during the summer. In that week at camp my knowledge on websites and how to run them expanded. Soon I was getting everything for the website up and running, along with the staff generating articles and packages.”

You would not believe how many times I said to this rising senior, already at school and working away on computer during the teacher work days at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, “Call one of your CJI buddies and ask THEM!” Marie knew I was hopelessly ignorant about online version of the newspaper. Every single student or group of students who had endeavored to do SPiN Wired had done so with no real training and without anyone to collaborate with. We were all too familiar with past failures and were clear on hopes for the future with the online version of the newspaper.

In the early days of the school year, Marie, still enthusiastic from her CJI experience, was positive she would be the one to bring the website up to the standard we all wanted, given we had hardly any money to work with. Sure enough, she was successful. It was not an easy road. There were times we all wanted to quit, Marie included.

But one thing CJI had taught her was perseverance and given her confidence that questions had answers and more importantly, there are knowledgeable people in SCSPA and SIPA at USC who would help you, even after camp ended.

The mindset of CJI is what you really pay for. I did two weeks at CJI back when Pagemaker and Apple computers came along. Seriously, we

still had electric typewriters in our newsroom, but the co-adviser David Corley and I had talked the principal into one of those miracle machines. Today the challenge is online journalism and all of us learning to be platform agnostic with our storytelling. Honestly, it’s time for me to get back to CJI for that camaraderie only a really good summer camp experience like CJI can give you.

Photo by Rachel Droze, Lugoff-Elgin HS (Lugoff, S.C.)

At CJI 2012, CJI Converging Media Team instructor Stephanie Gruber works with Brianna-Marie Ealy. Ealy was named S.C. Scholastic Journalist of the Year in 2013.

‘CJI helps resurrect your passion for journalism’

‘CJI does not end when the camp is over’

Accents Issue 3April 20132

Executive Committee: Chair: Amy Medlock-Greene, Dutch Fork HS, S.C. • Vice chair: Coni Grebel, Lee County HS, Ga. • Secretary: Stella McCombs, Stratford HS, S.C. Past chair: Mary Inglis, Wellington HS, Fla. • President: Chloe Hargrave, Clarke Central HS, Ga. • Vice president: Collyn Taylor, Dutch Fork HS, S.C.

Member-at-large: Anna Roberts, Lee County HS, Ga.

Appointed Members: Phillip Caston, J.L. Mann HS, S.C. • Meredith Cummings, ASPA, Ala. • Joe Dennis, GSPA, Ga. • Cynthia Ferguson, Oxford HS, Miss. Beth Fitts, MSPA, Miss. • Brenda Gorsuch, West Henderson HS, N.C. • Monica Hill, NCSMA, N.C. • Valerie Kibler, Harrisonburg HS, Va. Mark Murray, Arlington ISD, Texas • Susan Newell, Northridge HS, Ala. • Jake Palenske, Raytheon, Texas David Ragsdale, Clarke Central HS, Ga. • Chris Waugaman, Prince George HS, Va. • Bradley Wilson, Midwestern State University, Texas

Endowment Committee: Co-Chairs: Beth Dickey, S.C., and Martha Rothwell, N.C. • Marilyn Chapman, S.C. • Sylvia Daughtry-Brown, Ga. • Jenna Eckel, S.C. • Chris Floore, Ga. Melanie Huynh-Duc, N.C. • Mary Inglis, Fla. • Kay Phillips, N.C. • Jenny Proctor, S.C. • Jane Speidel, Fla.

DirectorCarol Pardun

Executive DirectorKaren Flowers

Scholastic Press ManagerLeslie Dennis

Accents DesignerLeslie Dennis

Office assistantsLauren HarperRebecca Piner

Blaine Parrish Turner

April 2013, Issue 3

Accents Southern Interscholastic Press Association • University of South Carolina • School of Journalism and Mass Communications • Columbia, SC 29208

Phone: 803.777.6284 • Fax: 803.777.4103 • Email: [email protected] • Website: http://sipa.sc.edu • Facebook: Southern Interscholastic PressAssociation • Twitter: @SIPAatUSC

My kiddos and I left SIPA with our heads held high and feeling awfully good. It was a stellar weekend for the Dutch Fork High School journalism program: our principal and API took home the Kay Phillips Administrator-of-the-Year award; our yearbook adviser, Debbie Gascon, earned an Elizabeth Dickey Distinguished Service

Award; my newspaper Editor-in-Chief, Collyn Taylor, won the SIPA scholarship; our Quiz Bowl team were first runners-up; our publications earned one superior and three All-Southern ratings; and, for the first time since 2006, our broadcast won the Scroggins Award.

But when I walked into my classroom the next morning, that high became an all-time low.

One of my windows was cracked open; my lamp lay overturned on the couch; mud and grass were smeared across the floor; and the computer countertop was empty.

As I spun around in disbelief, I noticed the padlock had been removed from the laptop cart, and the lock on the door between my room and the publications’ room had been jimmied open. In that room, cabinet doors were ajar, empty camera cases and lens caps littered the floor, and all 11 iMacs were gone.

That was the beginning of a hellacious month for all of us. My classroom became a crime scene: the charcoal dust from

the investigators’ fingerprint kits stained windows, cabinets and countertops. And my home away from home for the last 15 years felt desecrated.

I felt nauseous and violated. The programs to which Debbie Gascon and I had devoted more than half our careers had been crippled.

Over the next few days, that nausea turned to absolute anger. And then we channeled that anger into resilience. Left with three computers and three weeks until their final

deadline, Debbie and her yearbook staff rallied together and helped each other finish on the book on time.

The newspaper staff sweet talked the art department into letting us use the art lab to design the Spring issue and then the staffers used their “down time” to go into the community to sell ads.

Initially the broadcast staff planned to have a “blackout” in place of that Friday’s show – running only a Crimestoppers PSA instead.

But ultimately that group of kids came together and decided not to let the thieves keep us down. We had just been named SIPA’s best broadcast--and my staffers wanted to prove they had earned it.

Left with the two computers stored in our old darkroom and the four laptops we’d taken to SIPA, the producers and I created an equipment-sharing schedule for the 23 people on staff.

Our computer science teacher offered to install Final Cut Pro on a few of his iMacs upstairs and allowed my kids to edit in his classroom during his planning period.

But the most difficult part of this arrangement was sharing the equipment with my seniors – all of whom had originally planned to use the laptops exclusively for their third nine weeks’ documentary projects. One senior team was about half way finished with its documentary before their computer was stolen. Luckily they had backed up their raw video on the server, but they still had to start editing from scratch.

Throughout it all, though, these kids have made me so proud. They truly are an awesome bunch.

And in the spirit of the “when life hands you lemons...” adage, our English department colleagues chipped in and bought Debbie and me lemon trees. Come heck or high water, we’ll be sharing our first pitcher of lemonade sometime soon.

Amy Medlock-Greene

SIPA Chair

‘We’ll be sharing our first pitcher of lemonade sometime soon’ SIPA ADVISORY COUNCIL 2013 – 2015

ALABAMAErin Coggins, Sparkman HS, Harvest Mary Morrow, St. Clair County HS, Odenville

FLORIDAJames Flaskamp, Gaither HS, Tampa Heather Hanks, Bloomingdale HS, ValricoScott Zucker, Wellington HS, WellingtonDavid Webb, HB Plant HS, Tampa

GEORGIABrian Cole, George Walton Academy, MonroeJon Reese, Decatur HS, Decatur David Ragsdale, Clarke Central HS, Athens

MISSISSIPPIR.J. Morgan, Starkville HS, StarkvilleCynthia Ferguson, Oxford HS, Oxford

NORTH CAROLINASteve Hanf, R.J. Reynolds HS, Winston Salem Melanie Huynh -Duc, Northwest Guilford HS, GreensboroAdrienne Hollifield, Charles D. Owen HS, Black Mountain

SOUTH CAROLINADeborah Gascon, Dutch Fork HS, Irmo Phillip Caston, J.L. Mann HS, GreenvilleJenny Proctor, Richland Northeast HS, Columbia Chuck Walker, Nation Ford HS, Fort Mill

TexasMelonie Menofee, Buffalo HS, Buffalo

VIRGINIASue Gill, Stafford HS, FalmouthSeth Stratford, Harrisonburg HS, Harrisonburg

AccentsIssue3April 2013 3

With the economy creating hardships for businesses, it has been especially difficult to convince local and regional businesses to donate items and services. With fewer donations than in previous years, the Endowment Committee and Auction Coordinator, Rebecca Piner, a Scholastic Press Office undergraduate assistant, had to come up with new ways of advertising and attracting people in hopes of raising just as much money as they had previously.

“Every year we raise right around $3,000, so with about 20 fewer donations than last year, we really had to get creative,” Piner said.

Changes made this year included tweeting silent auction bid changes, hosting the silent auction all afternoon while offering snacks while music played, opening the auction to hotel personnel and the public and presenting live music at the live auction.

“The more people we can get to enter the room, the more people are looking

and the more they bid,” said Piner. “We just have to get them interested.”Opening the auction to the public and hotel staff

had not even occurred the committee until a group of employees setting up the room saw the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers footballs and asked if they could bid.

“We had never even thought to open up the auction to the public,” Scholastic Press Manager Leslie Dennis said. “But we realized there are a lot of donations that anybody would want, not just convention attendees, so it was a great way to get more participation.”

Both the silent and live auctions raised a total of $2,781 to be donated to the SIPA Endowment for scholarships and speakers. The highest bid on a

basket was from Steve Johnson for the “Virginia is for Lovers” Basket, with a bid of $80. Phillip Caston’s, J.L. Mann adviser, BBQ Services was the highest service bid with $200. Gary Dickey’s wood-turned bowl received the highest bid overall with $300.

“I think continuing the changes and thinking of new ways to keep people involved is the only way to continually have a successful auction,” said Piner.

New auction ideas create new opportunities to raise money

Thanks to all those who donated items for the auction and who

bid on items. Also, a big thanks to Joe Greene and Chuck Walker for serenading those who attended

the live auction!

SIPA Endowment Auction Wrap-Up

$156,000 and counting. The SIPA Endowment continues to grow, and the silent and live

auctions and book sale helped reach this at the 2013 convention.Students and advisers flocked to the table featuring more than 500

books of all genres that were donated by advisers, Endowment Committee members and bookclubs.

“We are grateful to Bookwalla of Irmo and other book clubs with links to SIPA for their generous donations,” Karen Flowers, SIPA director, said.

After the convention, the leftover books were donated to Statesville N.C. Fifth Street Ministries to be given to My Sister’s House for homeless women and children and to a school in the Columbia area that has no library.

Advisers recommended the silent auction last throughout Saturday afternoon and close before the banquet, but attendees have requested that it remain open so that they can make one last bid prior to the live auction next year.

Jane Speidel’s j-bobs, tourist attractions and assorted baskets were popular items.

Auctioneer Mary Inglis once again entertained the audience with her wit, and her assistant, Jenna Eckel ably displayed art work, tiaras and more baskets. The highest bid was for Gary Dickey’s turned wood bowl with tooled, pierced and painted leather inlay.

Rebecca Piner, auction coordinator, kept things organized prior to, during and after the auction.

“I would like to see more high-end items like hotel stays,” she said. “We didn’t have as many of those this year. I want to cater to our audience. Although the singing turkey did sell surprisingly well!”

The Endowment Committee met in the silent auction area and discussed proposals for promoting the role the Endowment plays in the South.

The next fund-raising opportunity for the Endowment comes in November for the annual Match Day sponsored by the Central Carolina Community Foundation (CCCF). This has been a positive experience for the last two years with SIPA receiving a dollar for every dollar donated.

– Beth Dickey, SIPA Endowment co-chair

Endowment grows with used book sale, silent, live auction

Photo by Beth Dickey

Name of person you want to honor or remember by making a contribution to the SIPA Endowment Fund:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please check: Honor Memorial

Brief reason you are honoring/remembering this person (for

our SIPA history):

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Please make check payable to SIPA Endowment Fund and

mail to: Karen Flowers Southern Interscholastic Press Association School of Journalism and Mass Communications University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208

SIPA Endowment Fund Memorial/Honor

Want to give to the SIPA Endowment? Join online as a Lifetime Member for $500 at

http://sipa.sc.edu/mem.html

or donate in memory or in honor someone by sending in the form below :


2013 Elizabeth B. Dickey Distinguished Service Award Winners

Buck Ryan, the director of the Citizen Kentucky Project at the University of Kentucky and the creator of the Maestro Concept, has been a faithful presenter and judge for SIPA for more than four years.

Ryan has written three books about editing and writing, along with creating the Maestro concept, an innovative approach to story planning, writing and newsroom organization. The concept is used in professional, collegiate and scholastic newsrooms in 48 states, District of Columbia, as well as 16 other countries.

“I just saw Buck Ryan on a video given to me by a regional editor who was using his technique for his own publication,” said Beth Fitts, director of the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association and former high school adviser.

“He promised me that if I used the ‘by now world-famous’ technique in my classroom it would change the look, the content and the reader appeal for the paper. It did, but it did more than that: his approach to staff planning gave our staff a sense of ownership, of oneness, that we had never had before.”

Having changed the planning strategy for many of the SIPA community, Ryan is revered for helping “raise the bar” for scholastic publications, according Fitts.

“Buck is the kind of instructor that students love,” Fitts said. “He is practical, gracious, funny and insightful. I am glad he is a friend of SIPA.”

- Rebecca Piner, Scholastic Press Assistant

Buck RyanDeborah GasconMary Kay Downes

Known across the Southeast as the “YB Queen,” adviser of The Odyssey yearbook at Chantilly High School Mary Kay Downes is a 2013 winner of SIPA’s Distinguished Service Award.

Considered a national authority on yearbook copy writing, Downes has made important contributions to scholastic journalism, along with conducting countless yearbook critiques for SIPA.

Not only is she the former president of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, but also frequently teaches adviser sessions to aid in developing strong yearbook journalism programs.

“I take every opportunity I get to attend sessions taught by Mary Kay at workshops and national conventions,” said Brenda Gorsuch, Westwind yearbook and Wingspan newspaper adviser at West Henderson HS (N.C.). “I have the highest admiration and respect for her and for the yearbooks her students produce.”

As adviser of The Odyssey, Downes works to train her students in their writing and design skills, but at the same time takes a hands-off approach and allows them to produce the school’s yearbook without too much involvement. The publication has also won national awards.

Downes’ influential role in yearbook journalism has impacted students, advisers and publications across the Southeast.

With all of the work Downes has contributed for scholastic journalism, Gorsuch said the YB Queen is the epitome of what a yearbook adviser should be.

- Lauren Harper, Scholastic Press Assistant

Deborah Gascon began her career as Dutch Fork High School’s yearbook adviser after a chaotic but memorable cross-country trip.

After convincing Gascon to attend the National Scholastic Press Association convention in Anaheim, Calif., Dutch Fork broadcast and newsmagazine adviser, Amy Medlock-Greene, convinced Gascon take over the school’s yearbook publication, The Legacy. Gascon has served as Dutch Fork’s yearbook adviser for a decade while juggling her responsibilities of being an English teacher.

“She is passionate about yearbooking and she does everything in her power to instill that passion in her students,” said Medlock-Greene.

Gascon’s yearbooks have won numerous Best in State awards, Gold and Silver awards from CSPA, Palmetto Awards from SCSPA, and have consistently earned top ratings from SCSPA and SIPA.

This year, she will expand her horizons even further as she becomes the yearbook instructor at SIPA’s summer workshop, the Carolina Journalism Institute.

“Her success as an adviser is evident in her legacy,” said Medlock-Greene. “Her former students are strewn across the world in various stages of their professional lives, but she still maintains relationships with each of her editors. To them, she is more than just a teacher—she is a mentor, a friend, and a confidante.”

- B.P. Turner, Scholastic Press Assistant

Photo by Mark Murray, Arlington ISD (Texas) Photo by Mark Murray, Arlington ISD (Texas) Photo by Mark Murray, Arlington ISD (Texas)

The Dr. Kay Phillips Administrator of the Year Award is presented to an administrator who supports his/her school publications in both physical needs of the journalism program and in understanding the time and effort put forth by the school’s publication advisers and their staffs.

This year’s two recipients of the prestigious award are Dr. Gregory Owings and Sarah Longshore, Dutch Fork High School’s administrative team. Owings and Longshore took their respective positions as Dutch Fork’s principal and assistant principal for curriculum and instruction in August.

Since then, they have maintained a strong relationship with the journalism department’s advisers and student staffs. Both administrators always make themselves available for interviews with students and meetings with their advisers.

“In almost two decades of teaching, I have never seen an administrative team perform as well as this one,” said Amy Medlock-Greene, Dutch Fork’s broadcast and newspaper adviser. “Sarah and Dr. Owings work so well together that it’s almost impossible to believe this is their first year as a team. The mutual respect they have for one another is a rare gem.”

When journalism enrollment numbers were low last year, Longshore and Owings were told to cut classes. However, recognizing the importance of scholastic journalism, they allowed Dutch Fork’s advisers the time to recruit and work out alternate plans. They allowed students to receive literary magazine credit during a creative writing class since there were not enough students to make a literary magazine class. They also allowed three broadcast students to make their schedules flexible so that they could continue serving on staff while still participating in other elective courses.

This year, Longshore and Owings supported the proposal for Dutch Fork students to receive honors credit for their work on the newspaper and yearbook staffs in Journalism IV. Next year, the administrators will back a proposal that will expand the honors option to Journalism III students.

“They are both advocates of a free and responsible student press and support all of their advisers—newspaper, broadcast, lit mag and yearbook—in all we try to do,” said Medlock-Greene. “From allowing us professional days to attend conferences to promoting our students’ work, they are the epitome of support and encouragement.”

Dr. Kay Phillips Administrators of the YearDutch Fork HS administrat ion team receives 2013 award


“Dear Ms. Flowers, I am LeGrande Green, a former student president of SIPA…” so begins the email SIPA director Karen Flowers received in December.

That’s right, former supervising senior producer of Oprah and co-founder of Spirit MediaWorks LeGrande Green made initial contact in reaching out to SIPA after hearing about the convention while visiting South Carolina.

It was this initial contact that resulted in not only his appearance at this year’s SIPA convention, but his teaching sessions and speaking at Saturday’s banquet.

This year marks the 30th year since Green last attended SIPA. With three decades of experience, learning, entrepreneurship and opportunities under his belt, Green had ample advice to share with students as he made it back for the 2013 convention.

But why come back to SIPA after all these years? After all, when Green last attended the convention, it was 1983 and Ronald Reagan was president.

As Green made his way back to Columbia, S.C., for the 2013 convention that first weekend of March, he was able to bring with him and share with students just how much SIPA meant to him, even after all these years.

“In a wonderful way, it [SIPA] allowed me to realize that anything is possible,” said Greene in a phone interview before the convention. As not only the president of SIPA, but the student body president at his high school and editor of the school newspaper as well, through attending SIPA, Green was able to surround himself with other journalists equally eager to open their eyes and explore opportunities in life.

I had the opportunity to talk to Green before this year’s convention. Not only did he express his excitement months before SIPA was to start, but he

also inquired of me things that young journalists would want to know about the field, so he could more aptly cater to their needs.

In returning to SIPA, Green not only shared with students some of the vast amount of knowledge and experience he had accrued since he last attended, but also showed students the importance of giving back.

“The fact that he reached out to us was great,” said Flowers. “It’s just what an organization like SIPA wants – for people to go out having learned from us and come back and inspire others with their stories.”

- Lauren Harper, Scholastic Press Assistant

Former SIPA president LeGrande Green returns, shares experiences since high school at convention

The C.E. (Chuck) Savedge Scholarship is awarded to a student who is involved with his or her yearbook staff and will attend the USC School of Journalism and Mass Communication in the fall.

This year’s recipient is Rebecca Farmer of Lexington High School in Lexington, S.C. Farmer is a member of her high school yearbook staff and a staff writer for the school newspaper. While being on the yearbook staff for the past three years, she has served as a staff writer, a group editor and a design editor.

Throughout high school, Farmer was also involved in various extra curriculars including Quill and Scroll, National Honor Society and the Travel Club. She will graduate in the top third of her class and attend USC in the fall to study public relations.

“Being involved with yearbook for so long has defined my high school education and showed me just one of the many doors of journalism,” said Farmer. “My time as an editor and as a member of a staff taught me that I want to work with a group of people that have passion and drive to achieve something in my future.”

The Elizabeth B. Dickey Scholarship, named in honor of SIPA’s executive director for 33 years is awarded by the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications to an outstanding SIPA student who will attend School of Journalism and Mass Communications in the fall.

This year’s recipient is senior Collyn Taylor of Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, S.C. Taylor has been the editor-in-chief of Dutch Fork’s The Renaissance for the past two years, along with being involved with numerous other activities on campus.

As the 2013 SIPA vice president, Taylor helped plan the convention this year, as well as has held positions in the SCSPA. On his newspaper, his main focus is sports. He was also the first Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas student correspondent finalist from his school.

Because of economic difficulties, The Renaissance had been forced to only publish online editions for several years. Talyor worked to change that and was the first editor in recent years to be able to publish hard copies of the newspaper.

“I want to be able to help define my generation’s great moments in sports,” Taylor said. “The beauty of sports is that it helps communities heal, offers an escape from problems and provides an outlet while entertaining fans around the world.”

The SIPA Regional Scholarship is awarded to a student who will attend a school of journalism at an accredited college or university in the SIPA region and must plan a career in journalism and/or mass communications.

This year’s recipient is Diane Gromelski of West Henderson High School in Hendersonville, N.C. Gromelski is the editor-in-chief of her high school’s newspaper. In addition to her involvement in scholastic journalism, Gromelski has also been actively involved in Mock Trial, swim team, soccer team, National Honor Society, Key Club, Outdoor Club and Language Club.

Gromelski has served on her school newspaper staff since her freshman year, holding editorial positions since her sophomore year. She has attended nine journalism conventions where she has won awards and led her staff to a National Quiz Bowl victory. Her junior year, Gromelski created an online edition of the paper that is now an award winning website.

“While I love working on the print edition of the newspaper, I know that the most successful career for me lies in online journalism,” said Gromelski. “I want to work for an online newspaper writing and editing stories and designing web pages.”

2013 Scholarship WinnersRebecca Farmer,

Lexington HS (S.C.)Diana Gromelski,

West Henderson HS (N.C.)Collyn Taylor,

Dutch Fork HS (S.C.)

Photo by Karen Flowers, SIPA Director

During Saturday night’s banquet, Isabel Retsinas, Tuscaloosa Mag-net Elementary School (Ala.) fifth grader, interviews LeGrande Green for the Scholastic Kids Press Corps. LeGrande Green was SIPA student president in 1983.


News reports from the neighboring city that Monday morning were tragic, yet not terribly noteworthy from 25 miles away: two dead, two wounded in a domestic violence incident.

The Earth-shattering news came 10 hours later. The 18-year-old clinging to life following the shooting was a recent graduate of our high school.

What transpired over the next 48 hours in terms of news coverage proved unquestioningly the value of scholastic media, the power of social media and one unrelenting fact that repeated itself unendingly in our heads:

Journalism matters. Newspaper matters. Yearbook matters.Danielle Jameison graduated from R.J. Reynolds High School in 2011. She

starred on the track team and was voted “Most Intelligent” by her classmates in the Black & Gold yearbook’s Senior Superlatives.

Less than two years into her college career at UNC-Chapel Hill, however, Jameison was in critical condition in a hospital in Greensboro, N.C., from a gunshot wound Jan. 7. Our high school’s athletic department’s Twitter account first reported the news, and after confirming the story through local media outlets, we retweeted and posted that night to our Pine Whispers’ Facebook account the information along with a story referencing the tragedy. Several recent graduates who had been friends with Jameison “liked” the link on Facebook, thankful to be in the know about the situation.

Tuesday morning, it was clear that our student newspaper – Pine Whispers – needed an online story on an event that had shocked many of the upperclassmen in our school. The question of how best to pursue such a story remained: Kids still had to be in class. I still had to teach.

For starters, I reached out to the writers from the Greensboro News & Record whose bylines appeared in the Tuesday morning story. I am in my third year of teaching and second year of advising after a 13-year journalism career, and I knew those reporters would be able to help us – especially if we had something to offer in return.

Of utmost importance to us was receiving updates from the police on Jameison’s condition. I asked for that in an email to the reporters, offering in exchange what they needed most: photos from the yearbook. The reporters were eager to make the trade, and by noon they had some great material.

Our 2010-11 yearbook had a classy senior portrait of Jameison, her senior quote – a poignant piece by C.S. Lewis about her faith in God – and an amazing “Most Intelligent” photo in which Jameison had donned “nerd” glasses and was reading a book – upside down – in the media center. By 2 p.m., the News & Record had let us know Jameison was still alive and also posted our photo online with an updated web story.

Meanwhile, my newspaper class that day included a sophomore who volunteered to write the story for our website. He had an indoor track meet that night, which meant he would be seeing athletes and coaches who knew Jameison. At the meet, he snapped an iPhone photo of teammates donning purple ribbons as a show of “domestic violence awareness” and shared it with our followers on Twitter. On Facebook, we reported Jameison was still hospitalized and a full story on the RJR reaction was to follow.

At 10:30, reporter James Tatter delivered the story to my inbox. Beautifully written, filled with great quotes, it needed only minor edits before being posted

on our website at 10:55. The only thing I added to the story came from the News & Record again – police had announced at an evening press conference that the shooter was the mother.

Following an argument that morning with her long-time boyfriend, she got a gun, shot and killed her 14-year-old son, shot and wounded her 18-year-old daughter, shot and wounded the boyfriend, and then killed herself. The newspaper shared the press release with us. While it added a great deal of authority and breaking news to the overall story, I added a brief paragraph on those details to Tatter’s story near the lead and then focused on the tragic details toward the end.

The story, after all, was supposed to be about Danielle – who was improving – and the many fond memories people at Reynolds still shared of her.

On Twitter, that story got 13 retweets. It got seven likes on Facebook. Our website had more than 100 hits in that hour leading up to midnight per Google Analytics.

Then came the tidal wave.Wednesday morning, the news editor of the

News & Record sent me a note thanking us for our cooperation and mentioning this little tidbit: A story on its website talking about Danielle’s condition being upgraded mentioned how fondly her high school remembered her – and linked to our website.

“According to her high school newspaper, Pine Whispers, she is recovering and receiving visitors in the hospital. Read more in this piece by student journalist James Tatter.”

That day, PineWhispers.com received 958 visits – 916 of them “unique.” The next day saw 337 unique visitors hit the site. In this first year of being online, our previous high total of 158 hits had come during Homecoming Spirit Week when we posted “Hippie Day” photos. Further, the Facebook post reporting that Tuesday night story ended up being seen by 652 people and shared by scores of them.

The lesson in all of this was so simple, yet so powerful. What we do as scholastic media students and advisers does matter. We might not realize it when we are snapping that 50th Senior Superlative photo in April or when we are battling the intricacies of taking the high school paper online. But what we do makes a difference not only in our lives, but also in the lives of people in our school and community and beyond.

What we did spread awareness to classmates that a former friend was hurting. It helped stop the spread of unchecked rumor and innuendo by presenting the hard facts of the story. And it allowed others with no connection to the Reynolds community to get a personal glimpse into the life of a fun-loving young woman sitting on a table in

the library with an upside-down book in her hands.It was a relief to move on to lighter fare a few days later: deciding what size

to make the Valentine’s Day personal ad hearts in our upcoming February print edition. That’s a new idea for us this year. We hope it will make us a little money. We hope the student body will get behind the idea and have fun with it.

We hope, in this little and innocent way, we can make a difference in a few more lives. Don’t wait for a tragedy at your school to realize just how much your publication matters.

Read Tatter’s story here: http://www.pinewhispers.com/2013/01/08/danielle-jameison-improves-after-shooting-friends-rally-behind-2011-grad/

Like Pine Whispers at Facebook.com/PineWhispers

– Steve Hanf, R.J. Reynolds HS newspaper adviser

Second-year adviser proves why journalism mattersExperiences of a JEA Mentee:

Photo by Steve Hanf, R.J. Reynolds HS (Winston-Salem, N.C.)

R.J. Reynolds HS seniors Anna Caudill and Madison Watts work on the scheduling board for the May edition of Pine Whispers while sophomore Sophie Hollis types story ideas to be distributed to the R.J. Reynolds HS newspaper class members.

Summer Magazine and Yearbook Evaluation DeadlineJuly 1 - Download entry form @ http://sipa.sc.edu/forms.html

Mail to: SIPA, Attn: Leslie DennisSchool of Journalism, 600 Assembly Street, USC

Columbia, SC 29208


• For the four of us (Jake Bittle, Kyle Dunn, Brandon Mauriello and Natalie Barman), this is our third year competing. Our school has only existed for four years. We are all senior editors on our staff, and three of us have been on staff since the day school began.

• Last year, we were bested by Oxford HS (Miss.) because we hadn’t prepared enough. We decided to come back with a bang and take the cake for ourselves. We were also inspired by Freedom’s (Fla.) 2011 win (which was our first SIPA), given that we had to share the bus ride back with them and watch them revel in their victory.

• Last year we got to the final round before we were trounced by Oxford. The previous year we were eliminated in the first “lightning round.” Obviously undefeated this year.

• We printed out the study packets the day before leaving and looked at them over meals, before bed, between sessions — basically at any and every opportunity. We quizzed each other at 2 a.m. and in between mouthfuls of Vietnamese noodles. I have a distinct memory of spreading sushi-stained quiz bowl papers out on a restaurant table. We nearly destroyed friendships in order to win this tournament.

• We learned that the key to winning Quiz Bowl isn’t how early you start preparing — it’s how mercilessly hard core you are in preparation. If you want it enough, it’s there for you.

• When we decided to come back and compete again in the quiz bowl, we knew that winning by a wide margin wouldn’t be enough. We had to win by a wide margin as well as give the other teams nightmares. Initially, we intended to come dressed as the Avengers, but when we figured out that those costumes cost $70 apiece, I found black cloaks in my closet and we used those. We also had masks, but Karen Flowers advised us against wearing those.

• More than likely the free registration for next year’s convention will go to the editor-in-chief or the staff will play Boggle to see who gets it. If a staffer is really having financial difficulty in affording the trip, it may be awarded to them.

• The trophy currently sits on top of the morgue where we keep old issues of the newspaper. We ate celebratory M&M’s out of it on the bus ride back.

2013 Qu iz Bowl C hampionsThe Oracle, Steinbrenner HS

Photo by Marilyn Chapman (S.C.)

Photo courtesy of Marilyn Chapman (S.C.)

At the 2013 SIPA Convention, the winning Steinbrenner HS quiz bowl team poses with Quiz Bowl moderator Marilyn Chapman.

Photo by Marilyn Chapman (S.C.)

The winning Steinbrenner HS quiz bowl team and their adviser, James Flaskamp.

Southern Interscholastic Press AssociationUniversity of South CarolinaSchool of Journalism and Mass CommunicationsColumbia, SC 29208

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• Journalism: Digital, print, electronic• Design• Leadership• Photography• Team building• Writing

June 12-16, 2013www.sc.edu/cmcis/so/sipa/cjiColumbia, S.C.University of South CarolinaSchool of Journalism & Mass Comm.803.777.6284 • [email protected]

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