At the end of February, The Paw Print attended the annual invitational at Minooka High School and placed first place in advertising, editorial cartoon, yearbook copywriting, and feature photography. All 12 of South’s competitors placed in their respective categories, totaling 21 overall places in the first through sixth positions. The students are preparing for sectionals at the end of April.
“I was incredibly proud of all the journalism students who competed this year. My students work well with each other and are all individually competitive . That combination can be deadly for our competitors,” said Caroline Butler, journalism teacher and newspaper advisor.
At competition, each journalism students selects an event they want to participate in such as writing an editorial or designing a page of the paper. They are then given an hour and a half to complete their given task. After competing in two events, the student wait for the judges to give results.
The results of invitationals offer constructive criticism for the students so that they may improve for sectionals on April 22. Three of the 11 students (David Chapman, Kaitlyn Finnegan, and Erin Scoigletti) placed first in their event, and the other students view the competition as a learning opportunity. Along with their results, each student received feedback from the judges about how to improve.
“The judges at the invitational in Minooka give us constructive criticism in each of our areas. Our intent is to learn from our weaknesses and strengthen them by the sectional competition,” said Butler.
Both the advisor and the editor-in-chief are currently planning ways for the team to progress in the next round.
“I think we need to practice more. I plan on looking at what past winners did before sectionals,” said Isabella Paredes, editor-in-chief .