HiLite staff members earn Women’s Press Club of Indiana awards

Students on Carmel High School’s student newspaper staff, the HiLite, earned 14 awards in the 2010 Women’s Press Club of Indiana (WPCI) High School Communications Contest, including three first place wins for four people.

The contest allowed schools to submit one entry in each of 17 categories (eight in writing, two in photo, one in graphics, one in cartooning and two in design), with three new categories for video this year.

Junior Alex Mackall won first place for her cartoon on swine flu, depicting Porky the Pig as an outcast in the Looney Tunes iconic logo. Junior Arjuna Capulong and senior Jinny Zhang won first place double-truck layout for the Acumen’s center spread in the women’s issue about women who work in unconventional career fields. Junior Marianna Cooper won first place for her video feature story on junior Lawrence Yeh, who break dances as a hobby. The judge noted, “Excellent job with this story. You picked a good subject — a fellow with great dance moves, a terrific smile and the ability to talk about himself — and you made the most out of it. I appreciate the good writing, use of the tripod, clean interview audio and professional delivery on the reporter’s voice track. Really a nice piece all the way through. Good shot!”

These first-place entries will now be entered into the national competition sponsored by the National Federation of Press Women (NFPW), which will release winners over the summer. Winners will be invited to the August national convention in Chicago.

Other Carmel High School award winners and their categories are as follows:

• Editorial — Second place, HiLite Staff
• Opinion — Second place, senior Hera Ashraf
• Feature — Third place, freshman Victor Xu
• Sports — Third place, senior Andrew Browning
• Sports Photo — Honorable Mention, junior Arjuna Capulong
• Feature Photo — Third place, sophomore Stuart Jackson
• Graphics — Second place, junior Rebecca Xu
• Single Page Layout — Third place, junior Afra Hussain
• Environment — Second place, sophomore Monica Cheng
• Video News Story — Second place, senior Parker Myers
• Video Sports Story — Second place, senior Parker Myers