The 2011-12 Carmel High School HiLite newsmagazine has been named a Hoosier Star finalist in the annual competition sponsored by the Indiana High School Press Association (IHSPA).

The award is broken down by school enrollment. The newspaper qualified in Division III, which includes schools with 2,000 or more students.

The HiLite received a “superior” rating overall, with “superior” and “excellent” ratings for each category. In a written evaluation, the judge said, “The overall packaging of the paper is superb; the writing and editing is topnotch; the designs are modern and attractive; the front page gets readers interested in the coverage; and the overall content is so appealing.”

All publications rated as either “excellent” or “superior” in the IHSPA’s annual critique service qualify as finalists for the IHSPA Hoosier Star Award, the organization’s highest honor comparable to a State championship in athletics.  With this distinction, the HiLite will be evaluated once again by a separate judge. The 2011-12 Hoosier Star winners will be announced at the IHSPA fall convention in October. Since 2000, the HiLite has earned Hoosier Stars in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Editors for the HiLite for 2011-12 are editor in chief Laura Peng and managing editors Patrick Bryant, Monica Cheng, Yameen Hameed and Caroline Zhang. Jim Streisel is the faculty adviser for the newspaper.