Three West Side Story staffers landed awards at last week’s state journalism conference sponsored by the Iowa High School Press Association. Sarah Longmire ’17 received first place in the state for on-the-spot photo coverage and Nick Pryor ’18 received third place in the same contest. Prateek Raikwar ’18 nabbed honorable mention in on-the-spot news writing. For information on past West Side Story awards, click here.

Print News Editor, Nina Elkadi ’18, presented a breakout session at the conference about The Los Angeles Times High School Insider project, which she became involved with after attending the National Scholastic Press Association’s journalism convention in L.A. last April.

The annual IHSPA conference drew over 800 Iowa journalism students, advisers and experts to the Iowa Memorial Union downtown. Students participated in sessions dedicated to anything from covering controversial topics to developing social media strategies in the newsroom. The keynote speaker was California’s Whitney High Student Media adviser Sarah Nichols.