The Iowa High School Press Association recognized both the Trojan Epic yearbook and West Side Story staffs at its annual state journalism conference at The University of Iowa on Oct. 25. The Trojan Epic was named a 2018 All-Iowa Yearbook of the Year and the West Side Story staff was named a 2018 All-Iowa News Teams of the Year. 

IHSPA judges selected the Yearbook and News Teams of the Year from a field of finalist schools, determined from the schools with the highest number of points accumulated during IHSPA’s various journalism contests.

Last year was the first year IHSPA introduced the All-Iowa awards, and this is the second year in a row West was recognized.

All three WSS editors-in-chief presented a breakout session at the conference, as well. Print EIC Deniz Ince ’19, Broadcast EIC Ian Prescott ’19 and Online EIC Kara Wagenknecht ’19 presented a session titled “Sports Cubed” to help students learn various platforms to diversify coverage of sporting events and broaden their audiences.

Print Managing Editor and Copy Co-editor Anjali Huynh ’19 and Editorial Editor Jenna Wang ’20 also led a breakout session titled “Looking for journalism opportunities that go beyond your school paper?” The session focused on out-of-state programs for high school journalists and included a Skype session with Pulitzer Prize winner and Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold.

Students participated in various breakout sessions and attended the keynote speaker, investigative broadcast reporter Brian Ross.