You may have noticed that a couple of your classmates that are on yearbook and newspaper staff missed some school around the end of October and the beginning of November. Fourteen members of staff traveled to Chicago, Illinois to attend the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Associations’ annual conference. Activities included contests, critique sessions, and speakers. The Budget was honored as a Pacemaker finalist, the most prestigious honor for school newspapers. LHS’ newspaper was one of 67 newspapers chosen as finalists.

 LHS had many winners in the NSPA individual awards. These specific awards recognize outstanding work from the 2018 school year. Seniors Macy Landes, Connor Schmaus, Gary Schmidt were awarded an honorable mention for social justice reporting. Junior Sami Turner received fourth place for design of the year/newspaper front page design. Senior Anna Parnell received an honorable mention for design of the year/newsmagazine page design. Jackson Hoy, a 2018 graduate, received fifth place for story of the year/opinion writing. Elijah Jackson, also a 2018 graduate, won second and third place for cartoon of the year/comic strip.

Next were the Journalism Education Association’s awards for the Write-Offs, a contest given during the convention to the thousands of students that attended. Leslie Ostronic received a superior medal, the top honor, for photo story. Emily Gordon-Ross was awarded an excellent rating, the second highest honor, for feature writing. Izzy Hedges won an an honorable mention for yearbook copy/caption for student life. Emma Howard was also awarded an honorable mention, for yearbook layout theme. Sophia Kaufman received an honorable mention for her review writing. Emily Kruse was awarded an honorable mention for her photo portfolio, and lastly, Macy Landes also had an honorable mention for news writing.

Although the conference took up a lot of time, it was not all that the students did. Among the sites they saw were the Art Institute of Chicago, The Willis Tower, and the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center (a printing press for not just the Tribune, but other independent papers). The Budget staff is so glad they were able to take this trip, and attend the convention.