The Interscholastic League Press (ILPC) Individual Achievement Awards (IAAs) honor top high school journalists in the state. Midway High School students and graduates were recently honored with 15 awards after being judged against hundreds of entries from other 6A schools.
Top awards went to MHS students Annie Dunn and Samuel Lamkin who were individually named “Tops in Texas” by UIL judges. First place category winners from 1A to 6A sized schools are judged against each other, the best pieces are named Tops in Texas, and then are published in a magazine of the same name.
Samuel Lamkin, MHS senior and one of the editors of the yearbook, placed first for his portfolio of work. All of his photos that were published in the student newspaper and yearbook for the past year were judged for this award. In addition to being a yearbook editor and newspaper contributor, he has also been a student in the Independent Study in Journalism program where he participated in job shadow days and had work published outside of school.
You can view his portfolio here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/pCUf35vxY17Pz/
The second Tops in Texas winner from MHS was Annie Dunn, a junior and the sports editor of The Panther Post. Her photo of MHS students Ben Ullman and Kendall Krause being escorted by their fathers on the prom red carpet won first in the feature photo category and was originally published in a photo story about the 2019 prom in the newspaper. Dunn is also a member of the Unbound Club and runs cross country in addition to volunteering with Antioch Community Church.
All MHS winners in the IAA state contest were:
Samuel Lamkin first place photography portfolio
Jessica Haner and Adia West, first place editorial page design for Season of Pick Up Lines
Annie Dunn, first place feature photo for a photo of Ben Ullman and Kendall Krause being escorted by their fathers on the prom red carpet.
Annaliese Rose, second place entertainment page design for summer activities
Adia West, second place portrait of two students for the Adulting issue cover
Marshall Tompkins (2019 graduate), third place portrait of Juliann’s graduation photo
Julian Riggin and Georgie Holland (2019 graduates), third place entertainment review writing for spread on breakfast places around Waco
Sabrina Zheng, third place feature page design for holiday celebrations
Esbeydi Martinez (2019 graduate), third place feature photo of three students performing in a modern day trial of Hamlet
Samuel Lamkin third place sports action photo for an image of a football player reaching for a thrown ball
Hailey Fisher, honorable mention personal opinion column writing with Need for the Needle
Samuel Lamkin, honorable mention sports action photo of powerlifting
Panther Post Newspaper Staff, honorable mention for headline writing
Graduates are able to compete because the contest includes work from February of 2019 to February of 2020. All of these students will be awarded medals or ribbons by the ILPC office. Their work would have also normally been featured on display at the 2020 ILPC Conference in Austin which was cancelled due to coronavirus. In addition to student awards, journalism teachers also enter their personal work in a state writing and photography contest. MHS journalism teacher Jamie Beavers received an honorable mention award for subjective writing. Her entry, a feature story on Westfest, was published by The Waco Tribune-Herald.
