Three journalism students competed Tuesday, May 21 in Austin at the State UIL Academic meet, earning the second place journalism team award and two individual medals.
Senior Rachel Smith brought home silver after placing second in 4A news writing. Smith has competed in UIL journalism for four years and has been the district champion in both news and headline writing in prior years.
“After four years of writing news, I was honored and excited to have the opportunity to compete at state,” Smith said. “The trip was so much fun, and I’m so proud of my gifted teammates.”
Senior Jayden Beatty, who placed fourth, is also completing her fourth year of UIL journalism and is a former district editorial writing champion.
“It was an honor to attend a state competition,” Beatty said. “It was definitely difficult but medaling and getting to be a part of such a great team made it all worth it.”
Statewide, only 12 students earn the opportunity to compete at state in each event by placing in the top three at the regional UIL meet. In addition to Smith and Beatty, junior Kori Adair also advanced to the state meet and competed in editorial writing.
“I am so proud of Rachel and Jayden for how hard they worked and how well they performed,” Adair said. “It was an honor to get to compete and travel with them.”
UIL journalism contests include news, feature, editorial and headline writing. The news and editorial contests require students to analyze information and quotes from a prompt and write a final copy of their entries within a 45-minute time limit. The Canyon High School journalism team earned first place championship team at both the district and regional meets.
