High School Students Receive Awards in ASPA Convention

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than 320 journalism students and advisers from high schools across the state were on The University of Alabama campus March 7-8 for the annual convention of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association (ASPA).

This year, the ASPA awards for journalist, adviser and administrator of the year went to recipients at Sparkman High School in Madison County.

Greg Bizjak, a senior at Sparkman High, was named Alabama High School Journalist of the Year and received the second annual J.B. Stevenson Scholarship. Sponsored and coordinated by the ASPA, the $2,500 award is named for the late son of John Stevenson, editor of the Randolph Leader.

Bizjak hopes to major in journalism with an emphasis in design.

Erin Coggins, adviser to Sparkman High’s student newspaper tops off her first year as a teacher being named the Susie DeMent Adviser of the Year. The school’s principal, Steve Holland, was named Alabama Administrator of the Year.

All three were present to accept.

Awards also were presented in individual, overall and on site competitions. The following high school publications received All Alabama honors in the overall competitions.

All Alabama yearbooks:

Bay Breeze, Fairhope High School
Pantheron, Brookwood High School
Warrior’s Lore, Russell County High School

All Alabama literary magazines:

The Artisan, Briarwood Christian School
Counterpane, Jefferson County IB School
etc., Clay-Chalkville High School
Mosaic, Hoover High School
Perspectives, Opelika High School
Spectrum, Huntsville High School

All Alabama newspaper:

The Cinder, Benjamin Russell High School

All Alabama broadcast:

WBUC News, Hoover High School

For a complete list of all winners, go to www.aspa.ua.edu/state/2003/awards.html.

The Alabama Scholastic Press Association, part of the UA Office of Student Media, is a high school journalism outreach program that seeks to empower newspapers, newsmagazines, yearbooks, literary magazines and broadcasts across the state.

ASPA holds a two-day convention on campus each March, a weekend journalism camp on campus each July, and a series of fall regional workshops in various Alabama cities each September. Each event features nationally recognized workshop leaders.

ASPA also coordinates annual critiques and competitions, helps students and advisers with their daily concerns and lobbies against high school censorship.

For more information, contact the ASPA office at 205/348-9298, aduncan@sa.ua.edu or P.O. Box 2389, Tuscaloosa, AL 35403.