Five Dexter High School journalism students took home awards at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association’s summer workshop.
Sixteen Dexter students attended the workshop, from July 28-Aug. 1, putting DHS in the top four schools based on numbers of attendees.
The theme of this year’s workshop was Live It. Learn It. Love It.
The workshop, held annually on Michigan State’s campus, brought together 378 students and 25 faculty members from across the country for five days of intensive instruction in writing, design, photography, video and multimedia instruction.
The five Dexter students who took home awards include Alex Elliott, Sarah Griffith, Harrison Kane, Rachel Spencer and Katie Vontom.
Elliott, Griffith and Spencer took home two excellence awards for their work on a theme package for the DHS yearbook, Unsinkable. Their class was called Taking Your Yearbook to the Edge taught by Lori Oglesbee from McKinney, Texas.
Kane, who will write for DHS student newspaper The Squall this year, won his award for Excellence in Writing and Designing for Newspaper taught by Jody Mackey from Traverse City.
Vontom, who will be the Squall’s photo editor this year, won her award for photo excellence in her class, From Covering to Publishing, taught by Brian Roberts from Central Michigan University.
Other Dexter students who attended and the classes they took included Lauren Kimmel, Levi Kipke, Cam LaFontaine, Noah Mellifont and Caroline Schade and who all took the intensive writing course, The Bobby Hawthorne Experience; Jon LeBlanc who took Sports Coverage; Abby Mesaros who took Illustrator and Infographics; Sam Musgrove who took From Covering to Publishing; Chris Ryan who took Sports Photography; and Isabelle Sinabaldi who took Shoot Like a Pro.
During the five-day experience, students attended classes and seminars for eight hours per day, participated in team-bonding experiences such as a volleyball tournament of champions and lived the college life including staying in Shaw Hall on MSU’s campus.
Squall adviser Rod Satterthwaite, who has been at the workshop for 15 years both as instructor and assistant director, said he was proud of the work Dexter students did.
“Consider the fact that these kids gave up a week of their summer to work hard, eat dorm food and learn new things. It’s indicative of the kind of students we have in the Dexter journalism program,” Satterthwaite said. “Both newspaper and yearbook students did themselves proud this year. It’s a sign of great things to come for both publications this year. Their instructors loved them. They had a lot of fun, and they learned a lot.”
