North Cedar honors high school journalists

STANWOOD - Four North Cedar publication students were inducted into the Quill and Scroll International Honor Society last month.

Two seniors, Brianna Paup and Leanna Rouse, and two juniors, Jenna Engelkens and Emily Steffen, took their oath to uphold a high standard of journalistic ethics in Quill and Scroll's candle lighting ceremony.

The Quill and Scroll was established in 1926 at the University of Iowa to recognize journalism students. North Cedar's Quill and Scroll is one of the 14,104 high schools in the United States and 44 countries which have established local chapters. To be eligible for induction into Quill and Scroll, students must meet five requirements - be a junior or senior, be in the upper third of their class with a B average, done superior work in some phase of journalism or school publications work, recommended by the supervisor and approved by the Society's Executive Director.

Each of the inductees have been recognized for articles they have written or photos and graphics they have taken or created.

'I had so much fun drawing my teachers and trying to incorporate their personality into the picture,” said Paup, who created all the teacher caricatures of the high school staff in the 2011-2012 yearbook and the Knightopoly characters for the 2012-2013 yearbook.

The Knightopoly yearbook received honorable mention in the Yearbook Excellence contest for graphics.

Rouse, Engelkens and Steffen - along with last year's inductees Katelyn Silva and KayLee Entwisle - have taken sports and feature photos for the yearbook and published photos and articles in the at www.IowaPrepSports.com through The Gazette's high school journalism program. The collections of articles can be viewed from the link on the North Cedar's home page.

'The Quill and Scroll was brought back three years ago,” said yearbook adviser Carla Green. 'It is an honor society that I think will grow especially because of the current talent and the promising writing ability of my freshmen publications students.”

Anna Peterson and Brittyn Wilhau's article about North Cedar's cross country team had the 10th most hits for a new article, according to J.R. Ogden, The Gazette's sports editor. Not to be outdone is Makayla Schluter, who has had the most articles published.

'This year,” Green said, 'I plan to enter the student's work in more of the Quill and Scroll contest because this group of girls are very talented.”

North Cedar's publication staff may be small, but they are proving the computer and the camera are mighty.