On Nov. 21, high school student journalists traveled to Slippery Rock University for the Pennsylvania School Press Association’s (PSPA) Regional Student Journalism Competition. The Slippery Rock contest is one of eight fall Regional contests across the Commonwealth in which students compete for a chance to earn a trip to the state finals at Pennsylvania State University in the spring. There are categories in newspaper, yearbook, podcast and literary magazine.
Some of the returning students, such as Calla Reynolds (12), Elizabeth Mooney (11), and Hannah Shaffer (12), are competing. Reynolds competed in News Writing last year and won at states. Cooper Brien (10), Wyatt Miller (10) and Morgan Blank (10) registered as competitors for the first time.
Addison Freeman (12), Colton Blank (12) and Caden Beringer (12) competed as a team last year in Podcast. The team made it to the state level, and they worked together again with the same goal.
“While making the podcast, I loved putting together ideas with my friends and just talking about our topics,” Freeman said. “Podcasts are special because you can balance casual with professional speaking, so it’s easy to talk about the topic when we’re passionate about it.”
Lillian Stragand (10) is a first time competitor. She was competing in Yearbook Copy Writing.
“I’m very excited and scared to see what the competition will be like,” Stragand said. “I’ve never really done anything like this before, so I’m gonna do some practice and just hope for the best.”
Alexander Micon (12) competed in Newspaper Sports Story Writing. Last year, he competed in Yearbook Spread Design.
“This year is going to be a lot different considering the category that I am competing in this time around, Newspaper Sports Writing, compared to last year when I did Yearbook Spread Design,” Micon said. “It will be interesting to see what the prompt will be like, because there is a lot more information going into a story as compared to a spread.”
PSPA competitions are important because it brings students together and helps them learn skills that they did not have before. It can also help them improve the skills they already have. For teachers, it offers development, mentoring and connections to improve their program, so they can help their students win the competition and get into states.
“I chose to do news writing because it is the category that has previously challenged me the most,” Reynolds said. “With this being my final year attending a PSPA competition, I wanted the opportunity to defend my state title.”