Texas University Interscholastic League has named senior Tasha Brown and junior Erin Westermann, along with 2014 graduates Cortlyn Dees and Kori Adair, to the All-State Journalism Staff for their work in the 2013-2014 school year.

Students are awarded points for placing in various contests and for staff leadership.  Students must accumulate 50 points by the end of the school year in order to apply for the All-State Journalism Staff.  Once the student meets the 50 point requirement, the instructor sends the students’ applications to UIL. Only 56 students from across the state were named to the staff.

State UIL journalism director Jeanne Acton said in a press release that students in scholastic journalism learn how to be effective communicators and critical thinkers.

“Being a member of the high school journalism team is no easy task,” Acton said. “Students work long hours to prepare for contests and produce quality publications. We have some of the best scholastic journalism in the nation because of our dedicated students and advisers.”

Current newspaper editor-in-chief Brown said she found out she had enough points to qualify for  the All-State journalism staff last spring.

“Mrs. Smith called me casually up to her desk and showed me the list of my points,” Brown said. “I had 66 points.  I was ecstatic because I felt like I had achieved something and proved myself to the staff.”

Westermann said writing for contests has helped her write better in the classroom. She is now editor-in-chief of the yearbook.

“Being on the staff has helped me learn to write well under a time crunch and under stress,” Westermann said. “That is applied in a staff setting where you are working towards a deadline and you are busy and it is hectic. I have also had opportunities to meet different people.”

Dees is now studying broadcast journalism at the University of Arkansas. She is the current all-conference state champion in UIL news writing, and she received the $1,000 Randy Vonderheid Journalism Scholarship from the Interscholastic League Press Conference.

“UIL journalism was really special to me throughout high school,” Dees said. “I owe a lot of what I learned about journalism writing to the countless amounts of practice prompts I did, and the years spent at UIL competitions. UIL journalism gave me a solid foundation to further my education in journalism.”

Now studying biochemistry at Baylor University, Adair was a two-time state UIL journalism competitor, and she received a $14,000 Welch Scholarship from Texas Interscholastic League Foundation as a State UIL Meet competitor.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to compete in UIL journalism and for our extraordinary journalism team,” Adair said. “UIL journalism not only strengthened my writing skills, but taught me to appreciate the stories everyone has to tell. As a student journalist, I gained insight to the value of each individual’s voice.”