Sting nets journalism awards

Chester High School's student newspaper The Sting recently participated in the Southern Illinois School Press Association winter conference at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and took home ten awards, along with the Blue Banner awarded to top-rated newspapers.

Gwen Sterrett took first place for her review of the Animal Crossing app. She also won second and third place awards in editorial cartooning. Melissa Crosby won first place for her Spanish Club featurette. Clay Herrell won two second place awards for sports reporting and featurette. Also earning second place prizes were Kayla Simcock, interview; Jacob Hoffman, in-depth reporting. Earning third place awards were Alexis Alvarez, photography; and Kylie Liefer, review.

The Sting won Blue Banner honors in the 300-700 enrollment category. Autumn Rowold is the editor.

Students participated in on-site competitions and heard presentations from the SIUC Journalism Department. This year's keynoter was Bridget Lescelius, an instructor at SIUC's School of Journalism. She spoke on the topic of advertising and was also the interview subject for the news writing contest.

The other interview subject was Brian Muñoz, a photographer for the Daily Egyptian. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was a child. Students writing in the feature writing contest, including Sting Editor Autumn Rowold, interviewed him.

Chester students lunched at the Student Center. Afterward, the members celebrated by going bowling and playing pool in the Student Center.

The Sting staff returns to SIU-C April 21 for the IHSA Journalism Sectional. That is the same day they will sponsor a laser tag fundraiser at Juergen's Gym.