About the Award
This award encourages Kansas junior high/middle school students to continue with journalistic studies in high school. This award will acknowledge and reward the work of junior high/middle school students. One overall winner and up to three runners-up will be selected each year. The overall winner will continue on to national competition representing Kansas at the spring JEA/NSPA convention.
Winners
- 2021: Kate Burdette, Andover Middle School
- 2020: Nora Hill, Indian Hills Middle School
- 2019: Tayla Ahlf, Derby North Middle School (Also the winner of the national middle school award, the JEA Aspiring Young Journalist Award)
- 2018: Aiden Werner: Maize Middle School (portfolio posted here & video posted here)
- 2017: Austin Schultz: Maize Middle School (portion of portfolio posted here & video posted here)
- Runner up: Pavlos Karagianis, Maize South Middle School
About Mary Patrick
Mary Patrick served as the long-time yearbook adviser at Maize South Middle School before her retirement in 2016. Patrick’s yearbook staffs won numerous All-Kansas Yearbook awards from KSPA and Pacemakers from NSPA. Patrick also earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Journalism Education Association, the Pioneer Award from the National Press Association and the Hall of Fame Award from KSPA. Patrick served Kansas students through annual middle school workshops and the middle school mail-in contest. Additionally, she served on the KSPA board for many years until her retirement in 2016.
At that time, the board unanimously voted to name the award after Patrick in honor or her selfless service and excellent teaching.
Award Recognition
The first-place winner will be honored at the KSPA state celebration held in May at the University of Kansas. The winners not in attendance will be mailed their certificate/plaque.
KSPA provides a full scholarship to a journalism workshop in the state of Kansas for the winning student. This scholarship may be used at any time through the high school graduation of the student.
Winners and runners-up will be recognized on the Kansas Scholastic Press Association website.
Entry Criteria
The applicant must:
- Be in eighth grade (or the final year of middle school) and at least 13 years old
- Be planning to continue the study of and participation in journalism in high school
- Have been in a junior high/middle school journalism program for at least one year
Submission
- Action shot of the student in the journalism classroom
- A letter from the applicant, describing what the applicant has learned from being involved in journalism and what aspirations the applicant has for pursuing journalism in the future
- A resume, with emphasis on journalism experience
- Three pieces of work with explanations as to how the applicant created them. Work should be saved as three separate PDF files.
- Two letters of recommendation
Deadline to submit application: Monday, March 3
APPLICATION FORM WILL BE READY BY MONDAY, JAN. 6.
Questions?
Contact the KSPA office at staff@kspaonline.org or Mary Patrick at patrickmary1977@gmail.com
Judging Criteria:
The following categories will be given a score (1-4) based on quality, scope and impact.
- Skilled and creative use of media
- Inquiring mind and investigative persistence
- Courageous and responsible handling of issues
- Variety of journalistic experiences
- Sustained and commendable work with school media
4 = Exemplary
3 = Excellent
2 = Fair
1 = Adequate
- Quality: Does the material presented in this portfolio demonstrate superior quality of work in the category over a period of time?
- Scope: Does the material presented in this portfolio demonstrate a wide range of quality work in the category over a period of time?
- Impact: Does the material presented in this portfolio document the impact of this student’s journalistic work in the category over a period of time?