2022 MIPA-MJEA award winners announced

Matthew Schott, Webmaster|March 16, 2022

2022 Student Journalist of the Year

We’re excited to end the week with the highly anticipated announcement of the Missouri Student Journalist of the Year.
We are pleased to announce that the Missouri Student Journalist of the Year is Audrey Culver of Liberty North High School.
Audrey is the Editor in Chief of Liberty North’s nationally recognized Ayrie Yearbook. Audrey is a young journalist skilled in reporting, writing, editing and designing. Culver is inspired to follow in the footsteps of her journalist grandfather, and is planning to pursue journalism at the University of Arkansas in the fall.
Her adviser Ronna Sparks-Woodward said, “[Audrey] is the most mature, level-headed, conscientious, and introspective young adult I’ve ever encountered, and the way she welcomes opportunities for growth and approaches difficult situations inspires those who are privileged to know her … As a yearbook adviser of 25 years, I’ve worked with some truly incredible young men and women who demonstrated the highest levels of maturity, skill, writing abilities, and leadership, and before the past two years, I wouldn’t have been able to narrow it down to one student who rose above the others. But now I can; it’s Audrey.”
You can read more about Audrey and see her work here: https://audreycjournalist.wordpress.com/

2022 Teacher of the Year

We’re excited to announce Mary Prichard of North Kansas City High School as this year’s teacher of the year.
Prichard has been advising publications and teaching journalism since 2006. She serves as the JEMKC Board President, serves as the Quill and Scroll sponsor for her school and also serves as a JEA volunteer lead judge. Prichard was also an ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute 2011 attendee.
Her student editors shared: “Students often look forward to coming to her classes, whether it be Journalism 1, Photography or Journalism 2 Yearbook, as she consistently strives to make an open, welcoming space where students are free to talk about anything that they need to. While many teachers have an infinite knowledge on the topic of journalism, Mrs. Prichard’s obvious passion and fire for journalism is what really makes her stand out. Mrs. Prichard truly

wants every student to grow, succeed, and find a love for journalism.”

Another nomination stated: “Under her direction, the Purgold yearbook stacks up awards each year including placing in summer camp contests and at fall nationals, as well as top ratings in state and Kansas City metro journalism contests. However, recognition is not top of the list of goals Mary holds for her students. She works with them to make stronger communicators, diverse storytellers, and grounded individuals who have pride in their school and community. For example, when the historic 1920s school building underwent extensive renovations a few years ago, the yearbook staff sold old copies of the yearbook. Most yearbook programs would use those funds for new equipment or paying the printing bill, instead Mary’s students donated more than $1,000 to the school’s “Make a Wish” fundraiser. Their generosity reflects the community-spirited values Mary models and that modern journalism needs.”
For these reasons and many more, we’re so happy to have Mary in the scholastic journalism world and proud to honor her with this award. Congratulations, Mary!

2022 Rising Star Award

About the Rising Star Award: “Rising stars” should show a commitment to journalism education, improving the media program(s) at their school and empowering their scholastic journalism students. These teachers are in the first five years of their journalism teaching careers.

We are excited to recognize Dr. Jason Callaway of Winnetonka High School as this year’s Rising Star Recipient.
A nomination for Callaway shared: “Since he joined our school district’s Journalism Department four years ago, Callaway’s “can do” positivity has inspired educators in our department. As the district’s sports broadcast program enrollment grew exponentially, three new teachers were added to build a program at each building rather than one team covering the whole district.”
It also highlighted: “What made that season amazing was Callaway’s ingenuity when streaming district wrestling from multiple mats across separate gyms within his school. He took the time, configured the equipment, and with his student crew made it happen! At semester, the television truck was finally ready and only one day of training was provided for students and the teacher at each building. Lots of learning happened during the livestreams that winter and spring. Never one to disappoint students or viewers, Callaway often joined other schools’ events to assist, plus scheduled time on truck so he and his students could learn more to improve their working experience and the production quality. He’s also made local connections with the University of Missouri-Kansas City, professional broadcasters, and local sports venues to give his students real-world opportunities like the recent basketball streams from HyVee Arena in

downtown Kansas City. High-quality experiences for students and viewers are always first for Callaway.”

He currently teaches Journalism 1 Broadcast and Journalism 2 Broadcast. After inheriting a limited equipment-to-student ratio, an aging studio, and other challenges, he’s been organizing, rebuilding, and evaluating needs for updates to the program. His production course producedweekly shows for the 1,200 students at Winnetonka.

 

And with that, we’re shouting a big congratulations to Dr. Jason Callaway. Thanks for all you do for your school, students and scholastic journalism.

2022 Taft Award

About the Taft Award: In 1981, Dr. Robert Knight, then director of MIPA, nominated Associate Dean William H. Taft of the Missouri School of Journalism for a special award for his continuing and outstanding service to scholastic journalism.

Taft had evaluated more than 10,000 yearbooks for MIPA, thousands of books for National School Yearbook Association; directed two editions of a Newspaper Fund Summer Institute; served as director of Summer Media Workshop; developed a correspondence study version of Journalism 380 “High School Journalism;” plus wrote helpful articles for the MIPA News-gram and spoke at MIPA events. It was decided at that time that the special award would be named the “Taft Award.”

We are pleased and excited to share that the Taft Award recipient is Colonel James “Jim” Craig Dumont. Jim served as a Yearbook Representative with Jostens for 24 years. Jim passed away this past September. Those who knew him and worked with him remember him fondly, and we are proud to honor him with this award.

A nomination for Jim read: “At his height, he had nearly 150 Missouri schools that he would help at the drop of a hat. Jim was always a phone call away with a hearty hello and was always glad to help either on the phone, or in person, in any way that he could. For 24 years, there was no one more dedicated to helping Missouri students and advisors than Jim.”
A well-deserved honor for Jim — someone we’re proud to have called a journalism friend.

2022 Knight Award

About the Knight Award: The Knight Award is given to a person, or people, who have provided outstanding service to scholastic or minority journalism and/or who have furthered student freedom of expression in Missouri.
We are pleased and excited to share that the Knight Award recipient this year is Michelle Turner. Michelle is a retired Blue Jay Journal TV teacher at Washington High School
A nomination for Michelle highlighted: “You would think that retirement would slow down the passion Michelle Turner pours into scholastic journalism. But if you know Michelle, you know that’s just not the case. Eight years ago, SchoolJournalism.org website grants were dwindling and ASNE asked MIPA to maintain and continue to expand the online journalism lesson and curriculum resource. The board accepted the offer. Michelle stepped up to this task on top of the board work she did for MIPA and other organizations. She’s kept this promise going – even into her retirement. Journalism teachers and students use this valuable online resource daily. During this school year, the site has seen more than 1,000 page views daily. It’s been a hard year for teachers, so having access to invaluable resources like those on SchoolJournalism.org impacts lives – thanks to the continued efforts of Michelle Turner – a knight when Missouri and America needs one.”
Congratulations, Michelle!

2022 Contributing Medium Award

About the Contributing Medium Award: The Contributing Medium Award is given to a media outlet or publication, person, or people, who have provided outstanding support to scholastic journalism either to an individual school, a school district or MIPA-MJEA, in some form.
Congratulations to The Dexter Statesman (Josh Ayers) for being recognized as our Contributing Medium Award winner this year. 
 
A nomination for the Dexter Statesman said: “Each week they provide a full page of their newspaper to individual county schools on a rotating basis, with each school getting a page two to three times a semester. The Statesman also works very well with news and sports coverage for our events and even when they can’t be at an event, will give our students photo credit in their paper for our photos. Josh Ayers, their current editor, and Noreen Hyslop, their former editor, have always been a joy to work with, even purchasing an advertisement in our yearbook every year – continuing their support of high school media programs. Finally, over the last decade, the paper has done more than 20 articles about student media and journalism of our program and the other 7 county schools in Stoddard County.”
We send our congratulations and greatest thanks to the Dexter Statesman.

2022 MIPA-MJEA Honor Roll

About MIPA-MJEA Honor Roll: 
The honor is given to students who apply that meet the following qualifications:
Student journalists who have achieved a 3.75 or higher grade point average and student journalists who have worked in student media for two or more years.
Congratulations to the following students:

Makayla Archambeault-  Lafayette High School

Luka Ashton- Oak Park High School

Kallista Ashton- Oak Park High School

Emily Barnett- Liberty High School

Kaya Barringer- North Kansas City High School

Sophia Beckmann- Kirkwood High School

Tara Behnam- Kirkwood High School

Eva Beidle- Oakville High School

Brooke Benne- Timberland High School

Alex Berns- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Paige Bostic- Liberty High School

Blume Brittan- Willard High School

Makenzie Burnett- Truman High School

Ivy Byers- Oak Park High School

Ivy Byers- Oak Park High School

Dominic Carrera- Oak Park High School

Henry Chappell-  Kirkwood High School

Mya Copeland- Kirkwood High School

Rhett Cunningham- Liberty HIgh School

Hayden Davidson- Kirkwood High School

Kayla Davito- Timberland High School

Ethan Decker- Liberty North High School

Ashley Dickey- Lindbergh High School

Janelle Douyon- North Kansas City high school

Katelyn Doyle- Lindbergh High School

Dori Earle- Liberty High School

Marin Ellington- Marquette High School

Chloe  Englander- Ladue High School

Selena Escutia- Staley High School

Sydney Eubanks- Park Hill High School

Domenic Fenoglio- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Fiona Ferguson- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Melina Fioretti- Kirkwood High School

Cassandra Ford- Staley High School

Cassandra Ford- Staley High School

Emma Forsee- Webster Groves High School

Caleb Frillman- Oakville Senior High

Emma Frizzell- Kirkwood High School

Autumn Garrett- William Chrisman

Janka Gerber- Lafayette High School

Emily Goben- Webster Groves High School

Olivia Goeke- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Macy Goetz- Winnetonka High School

Nicole Gorrell- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Lillian Goss- Oak Park High School

Lillian Goss- Oak Park High School

Morgan Griffin- Liberty North High School

Elizabeth Hamby- Liberty High School

Colin Henderson- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Ava Henry- Liberty North High School

Erin Herberholt- Oakville Senior Highschool

Lucia Hockerman- Kirkwood High School

Lainey Hogg- Kirkwood High School

Georgia Holliday- Kirkwood High School

Rylie Huether- Oakville High School

Jordan Hunt- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Abigail Jansen- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Sejla Karic- Mehlville High School

Jaiden Key- Willard High School

Mayabeth Kim- Kirkwood High School

Cidney Kirkendolph- Liberty North High School

Ty Kuehl- Liberty North High School

Emerson Linden- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Sophia Liu- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Emma Loeber- Willard High School

Olivia Lutker- Oakville Senior High School

Lindsey Marshall- Oakville Senior High School

Jackson Martin- Liberty High School

Sophia May- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Amelia McCoy- Oak Park High School

Raven McCoy- Oak Park High School

Dylan Melnick- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Anthony Messerly- Lindbergh High School

Joseph Mormino- North Kansas City High School

Christina Nguyen- Oak Park High School

Elaine Ottens- Lindbergh High School

Grayce Page- Liberty High School

Annie Pan- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Jackson Parks- Webster Groves High School

Lajja Patel- Marquette high school

Rhea Patney- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Avery Penn- Park Hill High School

Benjamin Peter- Kirkwood High School

Ella Pinz- Liberty High School

Alix Queen- Liberty High School

Amanda Ralston- Kirkwood High School

Sruthi Ramesh- Liberty High School

Olivia Reynolds- Staley High School

Olivia Rezen- Park Hill High School

Nate Rouse- Oakville High School

Andrew Rudd- Oakville Senior High School

Jessica Sachs- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Merry Schlarman- Kirkwood High School

 

Ally Schniepp- Liberty High School

Hannah Schuh- North Kansas City High School

Virginia Schulte- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Alexandria Secaida- Staley High School

Kailey Shirrell- Kirkwood High School

Shanise Sims- William Chrisman High School

Chase Skaggs- Oakville Senior High School

Oviya Srihari- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Brady Stark- Staley High School

Hailey Steinbach-  Staley High School

Ashton Sterk- Lee’s Summit North High School

Saige Strodtman- Willard High School

Kyndall Stubblefield- Liberty High School

Jazlyn Summers- Liberty North High School

Joanne Sung- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Kelsey Swadley- Willard High School

Elayna Swenson- Lindbergh High School

Emma Thom- Staley High School

Ryan Tung- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Lydia Urice- Webster Groves High School

Mary Vetter- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Leyla Vilic- Oakville High School

Vijay  Viswanathan- Lafayette High School

Mary Vollmann- Lindbergh Highschool

Collin Waller- Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Charlie Warner- Staley High School

Jordan West- Park Hill High School

Edie Wheeler- Kirkwood High School

Claire Williams- Park Hill High School

Desmond Williams-Simpson- William Chrisman High School

Joshua Wilson- Liberty North High School

Rochelle Witzke- Park Hill High School

Danielle Zhang- Ladue Horton Watkins High School