Hinsdale South's 'Vespa' Staff Earns Third Place at the IHSA State Journalism Final

Submitted by Hinsdale Township High School District 86. Photo: “Stinger” adviser Liz Newman, senior Sameera Siddiqi, senior David Forner, senior Claire Ma, junior Maya Ramirez, sophomore Mary Ann Tharian, senior Ashley Yong, “Vespa” adviser Jim Kelly

Hinsdale Township High School District 86 congratulates the Hinsdale South High School students who work on the staff at “Vespa,” the school’s yearbook, for their third place finish at the IHSA State Journalism Final. This is the third consecutive year that “Vespa” has earned the number three spot.

In addition to the team’s strong, top-three finish, five students earned spots in the top five for individual competitions, including three state champions. David Forner won the state championship title in Copy Editing; Sameera Siddiqi won the state championship title in Photography; and Ashley Wong won the state championship title in Yearbook Design. Claire Ma took third place in Editorial Cartooning and Mary Ann Tharian took home a fifth place award in Feature Writing.

Many of the students also work on the staff at “The Stinger,” the school’s newspaper.

“The entire yearbook and newspaper staff works tirelessly all year to create publications and tell the stories of South, this competition is a lot of fun and great recognition for these journalists,” said adviser Jim Kelly. “It’s also nice because it provides validation of what we teach and work on all year. It’s also a testament to the English Department and all of Hinsdale South. This is an academic competition and it shows what top-notch education these kids are getting. We are really happy to have three state champs, and I’m proud of all the work not only these competitors put into the competition, but the work these journalists put into our publications.”

Mr. Kelly also thanked “Stinger” adviser Liz Newman, “She helped me coach this year and was invaluable. She’s got such a keen eye for detail and she works so well with these kids.”

In its 10th year, the IHSA State Journalism Final was held at Eastern Illinois University and is modeled after the speech competition. There are 17 individual events. To give one example, Mary Ann Tharian competed in Feature Writing. In a 90-minute block, she and 20 other competitors watched a press conference and then wrote a story. The stories are judged anonymously and ranked. The top six entries place. Then each place is assigned a point value and the point values are added up to determine the team score.

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