Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and a Yutan journalism first-place finish at state. For the past eight years, the Yutan journalism staff has secured the top spot of the Class C podium.
“It felt very rewarding to win the state title again, knowing that I contributed to a very successful program that continued to grow throughout my four years at Yutan,” senior Kylie Kraijcek said.
The long-running winning streak of first-place finishes at state comes with a lot of preparation, however. All the journalism students are required to write stories, take pictures, create broadcasts, make graphics and design yearbook pages throughout the year that will then eventually be used as entries for state.
“Everything we do all year long is a preparation for state journalism because the skills we practice with every story we write, every graphic we make, every picture we take, all of those things prepare us to have the skills for state journalism,” journalism sponsor Ginger Eikmeier said.
At the state competition, there are two different categories of events students can compete in: pre-judged and live events. During the live events, students are given 75 minutes to create their entry with materials provided by the NSAA.
“Competing live is always nerve wracking and kind of stressful, especially at the beginning for me, because in both events, I could not think of an idea to get down. So the first five minutes I would just spend sitting there trying to figure out how I want to lay my advertisement out or how I want to start my editorial,” sophomore Ashtyn Anderson said.
Between live and prejudged events, there are many opportunities to earn medals, which four-year journalism student Krajicek took to her advantage, ending her high school career with roughly 31 medals, including three more gold medals this year.
“Placing first in the majority of my entries felt rewarding because of all of the hard work I’ve put into journalism, writing stories, creating graphics, taking pictures and designing yearbook layouts,” Krajicek said.
Krajicek is just one of six seniors who had an impact on Yutan’s journalism program. Another senior who has made huge contributions is Maddie Fenn. Over her career, she has competed in live events multiple times, ending high school with two more live state appearances.
“For my first live event, I felt really good. I did a feature news writing, and I felt really good about that because I just was kind of in a flow state the whole time. And then I got to my second live event, which was a theme copy, and it didn’t really go the way I wanted it to,” Fenn said.
Besides finishing her career with around 30 medals, Fenn has learned a lot of important life skills from journalism that will help her in the future.
“Being a senior in journalism all four years has taught me so much about not only how to write really well but also to accept constructive criticism. I feel like journalism has played a really big part in that, and I think it’s an honor to be a part of such an excellent program,” Fenn said. “Just the fact that we won state eight years in a row, I think, is a huge accomplishment for everyone on the team.”
