Austin speaking:

This week has been pretty darn fantastic. On Wednesday, April 16, we attended the JEMKC (Journalism Educators of Metropolitan Kansas City) awards ceremony and us newsies and yerds did quite well. We blogged a couple of weeks ago about how we had been stressing out over all the contest entries we were working on submitting, and I guess you could say it was all worth it. Mill Valley journalism placed several of our entries in many of the categories, and as a whole journalism program we got third place in the JEMKC sweepstakes. A couple people from our staff also took home some scholarships, so that’s pretty cool, too. And kudos to all of the other schools who won stuff as well; it’s crazy how many talented high school journalists live in the Kansas City area.

Kristina speaking:

Austin is being modest. The two people that took home scholarships were him and Hanna Torline, so congratulations! That definitely earns bragging rights. As Austin said, we went to the JEMKC awards night on Wednesday. It was so great to see all the journalism spirit; schools even brought their mascots to cheer them on. Two weeks from now, state qualifiers are going to the 2013 Kansas Scholastic Press Association contest. Last year, we got second place at state, so we’re determined to get first this year.

Hanna speaking:

I remember when the editors-in-chief last year came in and announced the results from the 2012 JEMKC awards ceremony. It was really exciting, but at the time I didn’t understand how big of a deal the awards were. Now I see how much competition there is in the Kansas City area. There are so many amazing newspapers and yearbooks being published. Keeping that in mind, it’s flattering that our paper won so many awards. But now we are looking forward to the state competition, and bringing home first place. With so many talented staffers this year, we really have a good shot.