By Jane Hakiyimana.
The Journalism UIL will head to regionals on April 17 after defeating five other schools a couple weeks ago on March 27 at the San Angelo, Texas district meet.
Journalism began preparing two weeks in advance, practicing different prompts for the five events: Copy Editing, Headling, Editorial, Feature and News Writing. Teacher Amber Via spent that time making sure she chose the best of best for each event. The UIL team consisted of Vicky Gao, Makalie Farmer, Samantha Connelly, Samuel Villa, Marin Murray.
“We spent like two weeks in advance, just doing prompt after prompt. Ms Via would go and score our stories that we did as if we were actually in competition,” Farmer said.
The Journalism team consisted of new faces and everyone was completely new to competing in person.
“It was all of our first time at UIL, I was getting really tense but as the day went on I was feeling more and more relaxed,” Farmer said.
Marin Murray, the only freshman who competed in UIL, placed in everything she competed in, getting second in Copy Editing, sixth in News, first in Feature and fourth in headlining. Murray says that at regional she wants to be more confident in her abilities and be less nervous.
“I will probably not hyperventilate as much because it stresses me out and be more confident in myself,” Murray said.
Vicky Gao, sophomore, competed and will be headed for regionals. Gao also placed in everything she competed in, fourth in News Writing, third in feature, second in Headlining, and first in editorial. Gao says knowing how the competition works will help her and make things easier.
“Going with knowing exactly how everything is formatted will really help and just jumping on it straight from the get go,” Gao said.
Samantha Connelly, sophomore, competed in copy editing, editorial and headline writing, and placed third in copy editing. Connelly will compete at regionals in copy editing and says she’ll focus all her efforts on remembering editing marks.
“I’m excited, I didn’t expect us to get first with that being said,I’m really excited we did. I’m excited to see where this team goes,” Connelly said
Farmer, junior, and only returner on the UIL Journalism team, competed in News, Editorial and Feature. Placing third in news and sixth in editorial, she will be advancing in News Writing. Farmer says she was all over the place at the first competition because it was her first time competing in person, since last year due to COVID the UIL meets were virtual, at regional she plans to focus more, now that she has the jist of things.
“I’m going to be way more focused this time because I actually want to come out on top and beat everyone at regionals,” Farmer said.
The regional meet traditionally occurs at UT Arlington however due to COVID restrictions, students will travel to a smaller meet at San Angelo Central. Writing will be submitted electronically to the region for judging.
“I know our team will do great because already we are pretty amazing, and even if we don’t place in anything, they are all winners in my heart,” Farmer said.
