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Spark Magazine, run by students at Lakota East High School for the past 21 years, won its 10th national Pacemaker award at the National Scholastic Press Association/Journalism Education Association Fall National Convention in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 15-18.

The award is also unofficially called the “High School Pulitzer Prize” and was awarded to only 27 schools nationally. Prize winners, which are determined by a panel of professional media members from the convention’s host city, recognize superior reporting, design, editing, coverage, business practices and editorial leadership.

“I’m very proud of the staff because winning a Pacemaker demonstrates a keen level of consideration to all aspects of the operation,” said Dean Hume, who serves as the magazine’s advisor and as a Lakota East Journalism teacher.

“Plus, the judges look at the entire wealth of a year’s coverage – not just one issue of the paper.”

The publication also earned a First Place Best of Show Gold Cup in the “special coverage” category for its coverage of the new Driver Texting Laws in Ohio, as well as a Third Place Best of Show Honor in the “News magazine” category. According to Hume, this is the fifth consecutive year that Spark has earned at least one Best of Show Gold Cup.

Individual staff honors went to National Write-Off winners: Jeff Back for Superior Commentary writing, Sophia Li for Superior News writing, Natasha Rausch for Excellent Feature writing, John Grasty for Excellent Sports writing, Raika Casey for Excellent Broadcast commentary and to the team of Kaitlin Lange and Kyle Culp for Excellent In-Camera Broadcast Feature Story.

Back, Mandy Ellsworth and Irfon Ibrihim also earned Honorable Mention awards for Story of the Year, Photo of the Year and Design of The Year contest entries, respectively. East graduate and former Spark package editor Drew Souders, now a freshman at the University of Virginia, received a third-place trophy in the Story of the Year contest for his sports in-depth piece.

Posted in: News, Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: Dean Hume, Jeff Back, John Grasty, Kaitlin Lange, Kyle Culp, Lakota East, Lakota East High School, Lakota East Spark Magazine, Natasha Rausch, Pacemaker award, Pacemaker award Lakota East High School, Raika Casey, Sophia Li, Spark, Spark Magazine

A total of 10 local students have been named semifinalists in the 2013 Natioinal Merit Scholarship Program. The students are among approximately 16,000 named this week in the program.

The recognized students include Jeffrey Back, Christina Clyde, Meghan Gibbons, Sophia Li, Jamie Silva and Jasmine Tuazon of Lakota East; Ethan Bennett, Paul Register and Abd Alrahman Traboulsi of Lakota West; and Amber Nix of West Chester (homeschool).

These high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring, according to a press release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist and their high school must submit a detailed scholarship application with information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, and honors and awards received.

From the approximately 16,000 semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the finalist level and in February they will be notified of this designation.

All National Merit Scholarship winners will be selected from this group of finalists and will be announced between April or July.

Posted in: Schools, Student achievements |

Tags: Tags: Abd Alrahman Traboulsi, Amber Nix, Christina Clyde, Ethan Bennett, Jamie Silva, Jasmine Tuazon, Jeff Back, Jeffrey Back, Lakota East, Lakota East High School, Lakota East National Achievement Award, Lakota East National Merit Finalists, Lakota West, Lakota West High School, Lakota West National Merit Finalists, Lakota West student achievements, Meghan Gibbons, National Achievement Award, National Merit Finalists, National Merit Scholarship Program, National Merit Semi-Finalists, Paul Register, Sophia Li

It was an odd day.

Union Elementary first grader Jeff Back didn’t understand why recess was being held inside on such a beautiful day or why so many of his classmates were being picked up from school by their parents.

Meanwhile, at Liberty Elementary, Anna Starr was starting to get jealous.

Why wasn’t her mom picking her up?

What was so special about today?

It was Sept. 11, 2001.

It was a day not easily forgotten by Hannah Lee.

Lee remembers briefly watching the news coverage in her first grade classroom.

“The World Trade Center! I was just there,” said Lee, who went on a trip to visit relatives in New York City three weeks prior to the attacks.

Her teacher looked at her. The television was quickly turned off.

While she was only in first grade, Lee knew something terrible had just happened. She knew her uncle worked at the World Trade Center. She knew that her other uncle was a New York City fire fighter.

A lot of her family lives there.

She wondered: Are they ok?

Fellow first graders Keith Brady and Jake Chestnut remember their teachers whispering in the hallway.

Why were their teachers crying? (more…)

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, 9/11 attacks, Anna Starr, Hannah Lee, Jake Chestnut, Jeff Back, Keith Brady, Lakota East, Lakota High School