Silver Chips takes 2004 MSPA Individual Writing and Editing Contest by storm

Silver Chips print staff recently won 24 out of a total 51 possible awards, excluding honorable mentions, in the 2004 Maryland Scholastic Press Association Individual Writing and Editing Contest. Silver Chips outscored all other high-school newspapers, including the The Blake Beat, which received 11 awards, excluding honorable mentions.

The contest, sponsored by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, gives awards based on comics, double-page layout, editorial cartoons, opinion pieces, features, front-page layout, in-depth stories, informational graphics, news, photography, profiles, signed editorial columns, single-page layouts, reviews, sports-game coverage and sports-opinion columns.

Out of the 16 categories, Silver Chips received all first, second and third place awards for news, features, opinion, informational graphics and sports-game coverage. The staff took home nine first place awards, ten second place awards and five third place awards. Additionally, Golden Chips, Blair's alumni magazine, won first and second place awards for inside page designs created by Maya Kosok and Anna Benfield. Print staff was also the recipient of 21 honorable mention awards.

Below is a list of the Silver Chips 2004 MSPA Individual Writing and Editing Contest winners:

First Place:
Feature: Amina Baird for Inside the Salvatrucha
Signed Editorial Column: Easha Anand and Amina Baird for Education Alone Cannot "Close the Gap"
News: Easha Anand, Elena Chung and Izaak Orlansky for Principals, Weast Clash
Review: Eric Glover for The Bullet-time Bandwagon
Informational Graphic: Fidan Kerimova for Weighty Obsessions
Editorial Opinion: Lauren Finkel for In Memory of Ba
Sports-Game Coverage: Lauren Finkel for Lax Gives Bengals a Sound Licking
Golden Chips Inside-Page Design: Maya Kosok for The '60s
Profiles: Sherri Geng for On the Path to Excellence

Second Place:
Signed Editorial Column: Abigail Graber for TV's Portrayal of Gays Goes Too Far
Golden Chips Inside-Page Design: Anna Benfield for The '70s
Comic: Branden Buehler and Terry Li for Big Moco-volleyball
Informational Graphic: Christian Brown for Decision 2004
Review: David Kim for Fab Indian Food
News: Han Hu for School Buses Overcrowded
Editorial Opinion: Izaak Orlansky for Blair's Growing Pains
Feature: Renee Park for Go-go-ing Places
In-Depth Story: Sherri Geng for Continuing with Life after Death
Sports-Game Coverage: Zach Mellman for Hornets Sting Blazers

Third Place:
Features: Easha Anand for Athletes' Cult of Skin & Bones and Love and Marriage go Hand in Hand
News: Elliot Wolf for Senior Murdered
Editorial Opinion: Nora Onley for Fading Ethics in the World of Journalism
In-Depth Story: Renee Park for Go-go-ing places
Informational Graphic: Sheila Rajagopal for Maximum Penalties for Juveniles with Psilocybin Mushrooms

Honorable Mention:
Features: Arianna Herman, Anna Benfield, Karima Tawfik, Alexa Gabriel, Julia Penn, Sherri Geng and Olivia Bevacqua
In-depth Story: Olivia Bevacqua and Sherri Geng
Informational Graphic: Sheila Rajagopal
News: Kristina Hamilton, Sherri Geng, Yicong Liu, Stephanie Nguyen, Sheila Rajagopal and KC Costanzo
Profiles: Yicong Liu
Signed Editorial Column: Kedamai Fisseha
Sports-Game Coverage: Luke Bostian
Sports-Opinion Column Kent Anderson

To view the complete list of winners for the Individual Writing and Editing Contest and other high-school publication awards, visit the MSPA web site.