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Lakota East senior Kaitlin Lange was named 2013 Ohio Journalism Education Association Journalist of the Year at the annual Ohio Scholastic Media Association state conference last week at Kent State University. Lange is the managing editor and a three-year staff member of Spark Magazine, an award-winning publication produced by high school students.

Lange is the sixth Spark journalist to receive the honor since 1998. Previous winners include Melissa Harris, Sara Thomas, Matt Faig, Betsy Brown and Sarah Massey.

In addition to the state honor, Lange is also entered in the JEA national Journalist of The Year competition in San Francisco in late April. There, Lange will be going up against seniors from 35 states. If she wins, she would receive a $5,000 national prize in addition to her $500 state award.

In this year’s OSMA state contests, Lange earned the only superior in first-person narrative, was part of in-depth teams that earned a superior and an excellent, had an honorable mention entry in news feature, plus a first place on the LEHS Spark broadcast team in the day-of video story competition.

“Covering all those school board meetings paid off for Kaitlin,” said Dean Hume, who serves as the magazine’s advisor and as a Lakota East journalism teacher. “She covers hard news and soft news with equal resolve and thoroughness.”

Lange, who is also a varsity cheerleader, is planning to study journalism at Maryland, Indiana or Ball State.

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Tags: Tags: Kaitlin Lange, Lakota East, Lakota East High School, Lakota East Spark, Lakota East Spark Magazine, Spark Magazine

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.

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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