2009 Mustang yearbook wins KSPA All-Kansas award for first time
by Jessica Augustine
December 15, 2009
For the first time in Rock Creek High School's history, the school yearbook, the 2009 Mustang, themed “Live, Laugh and Never Forget,” received the top ranking of All-Kansas in the Kansas Scholastic Press Association's annual critique contest.
The KSPA, according to its Web site at www.kspaonline.org, is “a non-profit organization composed of Kansas scholastic journalism students and their teachers” and is “committed to excellence in journalism at all levels and views its focus as one of providing journalism education leadership for Kansas teachers and students.” During the 2009-2010 school year, approximately 135 Kansas schools were members of KSPA.
Each year, member schools of KSPA are given the opportunity to enter the annual critique service. The KSPA says that the service is “provided by award-winning yearbook advisers from around the United States” and enables Kansas yearbook staffs “to see what made the 2009 book so successful and how this year’s staff can do even better.”
When yearbooks are received by the KSPA, they are sent out of the state of Kansas to be judged in five areas: concept, coverage, design, photography and reporting. Judges, who the KSPA says are “culled from among the best yearbook advisers in the nation,” evaluate the yearbooks, giving each a rating of All-Kansas (the top rating), Award of Commendation (the second-highest rating) and Award of Merit. To be named an All-Kansas book overall, the yearbook must earn the top rating in three out of the five areas.
In its evaluation, the Mustang earned All-Kansas ratings for yearbook coverage, design and photography, and it received Award of Commendation ratings -- the second-highest rating -- for yearbook concept/theme and reporting. Combined, the book earned the All-Kansas ranking overall.
In the Mustang’s critique, the judge wrote, “You have created a good book that is complete in coverage, makes good use of photography, covers the events and subjects with copy and presents all of the information in attractive designs. You are to be commended. . . . you are employing many of the techniques that separate the great from the good.”
The Mustang, along with other All-Kansas award-winners, will be honored with a plaque prior to the KSPA state journalism contests on May 1 in Lawrence, Kan.
The editor-in-chief of the 2009 Mustang was graduate Seth Kuecker; other members of the staff were 2009 graduates Kortney Campbell, Courtney Stillwagon, Chris Wahl and Emily Zoeller; current seniors Hannah Cockerill, Travis Heideman, Jessica Jack, Brad Kleusch, Sara Liming, Megan Nider, Anthony Reid and Melanie Stubbs; current juniors Kim Fairchild and Linda Overkamp; and former students Blake Hinkle and Jake Schroeder. The staff’s faculty adviser was Jessica Augustine, who took over the position in 2008-2009.
“It is really cool to know that for the first time when we have a really legit yearbook, we received this kind of award,” Liming, a third-year staff member, said.
To complete the yearbook, students in the Multimedia and Advanced Multimedia courses are required to develop a theme, to design the theme pages and section layouts, to write and edit all stories, sidebars, headlines, and captions, to attend events to take all photos, and to use Adobe InDesign and PhotoShop to produce all the pages.
“It is good to know that being on the yearbook for three years, my hard work has paid off,” Jack, also a third-year staff member, said.
With the award, the current staff members say they are excited to produce the 2010 yearbook, given the theme “Pause, Play, Relive,” but they now feel compelled to produce another award-winning book.
“It makes me feel a little bit of pressure, since I wasn’t on the staff last year and since I want this year’s book to be that good, too,” said senior Erica Smith, a second-year staff member and a 2010 Mustang co-editor in chief. “I do think it is really cool, though.”
A few copies of the 2009 yearbook are still available, and orders are currently being taken for the 2010 book; if interested, parents or community members may contact Augustine at the school or via e-mail at augustij@rockcreekschools.org.
“The All-Kansas honor really is meant to reward the students on staff who dedicate their time and talent to the creation of a yearbook that the entire student body and the entire school community can be proud of,” Augustine said. “And, I think it should inspire the current and future staff members to keep the bar set high for its publications and to realize that they can produce high-quality publications at Rock Creek.”
