The Joys of Journalism

Being part of UIL journalism – or as my dad calls it, the Brain Olympics – isn’t easy.

6-a.m. bus rides on frostladen Saturday mornings, all-day competitions at distant schools, and the pressure of the clock as it counts down the minutes until a story is due are definitely challenges, but these sacrifices and struggles are more than worth it.

Every Thursday, the journalism team meets in room C-7 at Forney High School for practice. No, we don’t run drills or go over plays, but we instead take out our pencils and pens and prepare to edit papers, contrive catchy headlines, and write articles for various prompts. Our coach – Mr. Jon Nielsen, a former journalist himself – works patiently with us to perfect our skills, and he always provides us with our energy-boosting secret weapon: trail mix.

On November 11, seven members of the team drove out to Whitehouse High School for the year’s first invitational meet – a practice, basically, to prepare for the district competition that will take place in the spring. There were lots of schools in attendance, and we were one of the “big” three from across North and East Texas. We were ready to show our skills.

After a long day, we returned to Forney with 10 medals across four journalism events: copy editing and editorial, feature, and headline writing. We were thrilled to have done so well and to have taken home second place as a team overall. No matter how we finish, though, we always celebrate one another’s successes and rally ourselves for the meets to come.

The journalism team really is just that: a team, a crew, a family.

Copy Editing

Katherine Spiller - 1st Jane Salgado - 3rd Katelyn Daily - 6th Editorial

Jane Salgado - 2nd Katelyn Daily - 5th Feature

Katelyn Daily - 1st Isabelle Johanson - 6th Headline

Isabelle Johnason - 3rd Katherine Spiller - 4th Jane Salgado - 5th Guest Columnist, Katherine Spiller, is a Junior at Forney High School. She is a member of the National Honor Society, and has been a member of the Journalism Team since her freshman year. After High School she plans to attend Notre Dame majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in Journalism.