Lugoff-Elgin High School (LEHS) journalism students recently attended the Southern Interscholastic Press Association (SIPA) convention. Though SIPA is based at the University of South Carolina, it serves high school journalism programs throughout the southeast, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and others. While at the convention, students attended various breakout sessions to deepen their knowledge of scholastic journalism and also competed to showcase their current skills.
The weekend concluded with an awards ceremony in which LEHS had plenty of opportunities to celebrate. LEHS’s Kaleidoscope yearbook received an All-Southern rating, which is the highest possible and placed 2nd overall for Best in Show. Several individuals also won awards: Seniors Tori Potter & Zoei O’Quinn Nichols won third place for theme writing; junior Baya Hardee won third place for people feature writing; Juniors Hannah Flake and Haley Starcher won third place for academic spread design & first place for headline package design. Seniors Karmen Bramlitt, Tori Potter, and Zoei O’Quinn Nichols won first place for opening spread design; O’Quinn Nichols also placed third for academics writing. Bramlitt, along with junior Charli Small, also won third place for people spread design. Senior Lynleigh Bowen won 3rd place for landscape photography and freshman Grayson Proctor received first place for photo illustration. Both Lynleigh Bown and fellow senior Gauge Tankersley were also named SIPA Yearbook All Stars due to the quality work they have produced throughout the year.
LETV, LEHS’s student-led weekly broadcast production, received a Merit rating in the evaluation section. This is the first professional evaluation since the revitalization of the program, and the staff is excited for the feedback and the chance to improve. Students placed in different categories for individual competitions: junior Sam Vinson won first place in the Hype Video category; senior Fallyn Murphy and junior Baya Hardee won second place in the Public Service Announcement category; seniors Jada Diaz and Braxton Nelson along with junior Lauren Walters won 2nd place in the Videography category. Diaz and Nelson were also recognized for being SIPA All Stars for all of the work they have accomplished this year for LETV.
