Susan Gray, the publications adviser at Wichita Southeast High School, has earned KSPA’s 2012 Ad Astra Award, which honors teachers who continually improve their journalism programs and make significant contributions to the advising profession.
Gray received nominations from two peer advisers, three students at Southeast and a former student who now majors in journalism at the University of Kansas. Gray has been teaching journalism for 17 years.
Joanna Hlavacek, now a sophomore at KU, wrote about Gray as a “did-hard journalist” who encourages students to cover even the most difficult stories on their campus. She also said Gray credits her students with whatever successes the program achieves.
“Mrs. Gray is the most selfless, caring, intelligent and hardworking person I have ever met,” Hlavacek wrote, “and I could not think of a single person more deserving of the award.”
Two other students wrote about Gray’s teaching of the First Amendment and the Kansas Student Publications Act as vital lessons in her journalism classroom.
Southeast’s newspaper in 2010 earned its first All-Kansas award, and then followed that with another All-Kansas in 2012.
Gray will receive the Ad Astra Award at the KSPA State Contest brunch, May 5, at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
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