The ODYSSEY Media Group poses for a picture during the 2018 Southern Interscholastic Press Association (SIPA) conference on March 3. At SIPA, the OMG journalism students were able to attend sessions, participate in competitions and workshops and more. “I love (SIPA), because you’re with kids that all want to learn and want to be better journalists and students and apply those skills for the future,” freshman Natalie Ripps, a Journalism 1 student, said. “In the classrooms, you just hear all of these amazing people who have so much experience teaching. It teaches us ways to do things and ways to be better journalists in the ODYSSEY. It doesn’t compare to school.” Photo by Kiki Griffin.
To view more photos from SIPA, click here: day two, day three.
Students from ODYSSEY Media Groups Journalism 1 and Convergence classes traveled to Columbia, SC for the Southern Interscholastic Press Association conference from March 2-4.
For three days, 550 students from schools across the Southeast gathered in Columbia, SC for the annual Southern Interscholastic Press Association (SIPA) conference.
While there, journalism students were given the opportunity to network with each other, attend a variety of sessions, listen to two keynote speakers, participate in on-site competitions, pre-convention workshops and more.
“I was excited to bond with the entire staff and to learn about broadcast which I’m really interested in,” freshman Journalism 1 (J1) student Krista Shumaker said.
Forty-six Clarke Central High School students from the ODYSSEY Media Group — including the J1 class and iliad Literary-Art Magazine — traveled to South Carolina to learn and participate in the conference, which started on March 2 with a 1:30 p.m. pre-convention class, and lasted until March 4, culminating in the Quiz Bowl finals and an awards banquet.
Alongside adviser David Ragsdale, who facilitated sessions, the ODYSSEY Media Group Leadership team of seniors, including Managing Editor Delia Adamson, Co-Editors-in-Chief Lucia Bermudez and Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Visuals Coordinator Sunčana Pavlić and Senior Copy Editor Jordan Rhym, presented a pre-convention workshop on effective leadership.
“I presented our leadership class with the rest of the leadership team and Mr. Ragsdale. It was really cool because there were a lot of students there that we got to help,” Conine-Nakano said. “At the end of the day, I think it was also gratifying because a lot of (other publications) have issues that we don’t have to deal with like closeness of staff and division, whereas I feel like our staff is pretty close.”
After preconvention classes, students attended a keynote speech by Jake Palenske. Palenske spoke on communication patterns among teenagers.
“I thought it was interesting about how he spoke about teenagers and how we are the smartest generation thus far,” Bermudez said. “He was basically trying to tell us that we need to be more conscious about what we say and how we say it.”
The second day of the conference provided staffers with the opportunity to attend a variety of sessions, including several by CCHS students with Ragsdale assisting. ODYSSEY Media Group Broadcast Editor Kelly Fulford, a junior, and News writer Mackenzie Caudill, a sophomore, presented on digital reporting in the 21st Century. iliad Literary-Art Magazine Managing Editor Killan Griffin, a junior, and Visuals Director Beatrice Acheson, a sophomore, presented on curating a literary magazine.
“Presenting was a little nerve-wracking at first, but after my friend Beatrice helped me and getting to see the audience be engaged with what we’re saying, it made me a lot more comfortable to present in front of people,” Griffin said.
Students also competed in various on-site competitions on Saturday, such as Team On-Site Production (TOP) in photography, newspaper, literary magazine and broadcast. There was also a review writing competition, grammar challenge and a Quiz Bowl.
For Junior Copy Editor Ana Aldridge, a junior, who participated in her second TOP, the competition was a learning experience.
“TOP was a good experience because it taught me to work in a high stress situation and with people I hadn’t really worked with before. I was pretty happy with the story, layout and how that all turned out,” Aldridge said.
Four CCHS teams participated in Quiz Bowl, a competition between publications over questions on Associated Press style, current events and politics. Two teams made it to the semi-finals.
“I enjoy Quiz Bowl because I like being able to work with a team to learn a bunch of weird, almost random trivia and challenge ourselves to remember as much as possible under the pressure of competition,” Design Editor Katie Grace Upchurch, a sophomore, said.
Sunday morning, Ragsdale, ODYSSEY Media Group Viewpoints Editor Valeria Garcia-Pozo, a junior, and News staffer Elena Gilbertson Hall, a sophomore, gave a presentation on writing effective editorials.
“It was my first time presenting at any conference, and we worked really hard to build the presentation from scratch to make it the best it could be,” Garcia-Pozo said.
Following morning sessions, two ODYSSEY Quiz Bowl teams competed in the semifinals. The Black Widow team composed of Adamson, Conine-Nakano, sophomore Alexander Robinson and Upchurch made it to the final round against Parkview High School and won by a score of 35 to 30.
“Winning Quiz Bowl felt really great. Last year my team got second place, so it was nice to actually win this year,” Upchurch said.
Following Quiz Bowl, OMG Sports Editor Hannah Gale, a senior and the 2018 SIPA president, announced the slate of student officers for SIPA 2019, at which time Fulford was named Vice President. Fulford looks forward to working to integrate students from all publications next year.
“I feel like students don’t interact with each other as much as they should. I want to build sessions and activities that build networking and communication between students who are from different states and different schools and different publications,” Fulford said.
After officers were named, the awards portion of the program began, which included two Scroggins Awards (Best in Show) for CCHS’ ODYSSEY Newsmagazine and iliad Literary-Art Magazine. Acheson felt validated by the iliad winning the Scroggins Award for Best Literary Magazine in Show.
“We are a really close knit group and we love each other so much and if we didn’t have that then we wouldn’t have won that award,” Acheson said.
J1 student and first-time SIPA attendee Natalie Ripps believes SIPA is not only a great learning opportunity, but also a perfect time to bond with her fellow staffers.
“I enjoyed the experience to talk to all of the kids in the production class because typically we don’t get to work with them and we don’t get to talk to them casually and be apart of the whole ODYSSEY experience,” Ripps said. “This was a really great opportunity for us to be a part of the family that is the ODYSSEY staff.”
For Ragsdale, who has taken CCHS students to SIPA since 2006, the experience is bittersweet, as the program will graduate 17 seniors, the majority of whom have been with the program all four years of high school.
“I was taught a valuable lesson years ago by an ODYSSEY parent — you raise your students up to let them go,” Ragsdale said. “I could not be more proud of this group’s leadership, mentorship and comportment at this year’s SIPA. They lead with dignity and work to build community.”
Staff Awards
Scroggins Award, Best in Show:
2018 Scroggins Award, Newsprint: ODYSSEY Newsmagazine
2018 Scroggins Award, Literary Magazine: iliad Literary-Art Magazine
Scroggins special distinction publications (Best in State):
These publications received an All-Southern rating and represent the best candidate from each member state attending the convention.
2018 Georgia Scroggins Special Distinction Newsprint (Best in State) – ODYSSEY Clarke Central HS
All-Southern – iliad Literary-Art Magazine
All-Southern – ODYSSEY Newsmagazine
Superior – ODYSSEY Media Group (website)
2018 Convention on-site competition winners:
2018 Quiz Bowl Champions: Delia Adamson, Aneesa Conine-Nakano, Alexander Robinson, Katie Grace Upchurch
2018 Newsprint Team Onsite Production Competition, Best Story and Overall: Valeria Garcia-Pozo, Jordan Rhym, Katie Grace Upchurch and Sam Mattern-Parkes
2018 Photography Team Onsite Photo Competition, Best Gallery: Emma Ramsay and Sunčana Pavlić
2018 Photography Team Onsite Photo Competition, Best Captions: Emma Ramsay and Sunčana Pavlić
2018 Review Writing, Second Place: Isabella Gonzalez
2018 SIPA Individual Awards
Newsmagazine Headline Package, Best in Show: Sunčana Pavlić
Newsmagazine Entertainment Package, Best in Show: Sunčana Pavlić
Strip Cartoon, Best in Show: Sunčana Pavlić
Computer Art, Best in Show: Sunčana Pavlić
Newsmagazine News Package, Best in Show: Katie Grace Upchurch
Online Videography, Best in Show: Owen Churchwell
Online Opinion Package, Best in Show: Aneesa Conine-Nakano
Environmental Portrait, Best in Show: Zoe Peterson
Newspaper Staff Editorial, First Place: ODYSSEY Media Group
Online Reviews, First Place: Elena Gilbertson-Hall
Online Features, First Place: Sara Goodie
Online Blog, First Place: Maddie Ingle
Newspaper Sports Feature, First Place: Owen Churchwell and Lucia Bermudez
Online News, Second Place: Ana Aldridge
Online Reviews, Second Place: Ashley Lawrence
Online Blog, Second Place: Crystal Fox
Literary Magazine, Prose Non-Fiction, Second Place: Luis Garcia
Newspaper Editorial Column, Second Place: Lucia Bermudez
Newspaper Entertainment/Feature Column, Second Place: Lucia Bermudez
Newspaper News Feature, Second Place: Jurnee Louder
Newspaper Personality Feature, Second Place: Elena Gilbertson-Hall
Newspaper Review, Second Place: Gabriel Mantione-Holmes
Online Alternative Storytelling, Second Place: Connor McCage
Online Alternative Storytelling, Third Place: Aneesa Conine-Nakano
Online Blog, Third Place: Delia Adamson
Community Ad, Award of Merit: Sunčana Pavlić
Infographic, Award of Merit: Sunčana Pavlić
Art portfolio, Award of Merit: Sunčana Pavlić
Newsmagazine Cover, Award of Merit: Sunčana Pavlić
Newsmagazine Entertainment Package, Award of Merit: Everett Vereen
Newsmagazine Headline Package, Award of Merit: Katie Grace Upchurch
Newsmagazine Sports Package, Award of Merit: Katie Grace Upchurch
Online Photo Gallery, Award of Merit: Zoe Peterson
Online Videography, Award of Merit: Mackenzie Caudill
Computer Art, Honorable Mention: Zoe Peterson
Editorial Cartoon, Honorable Mention: Paulina Hafer
Broadcast News Story, Honorable Mention: Kelly Fulford and Gabriel Mantione-Holmes
Literary Magazine, Nonfiction Spread, Honorable Mention: Violet Merritt
Literary Magazine Table of Contents, Honorable Mention: Sara Goodie
Newsmagazine News Package, Honorable Mention: Katie Grace Upchurch
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