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KSPA Hall of Fame inductee Penny Wika gives a thank you to the advisers and friends who honored her in July 2024.

Congratulations to Penny Wika, the retired adviser of publications at Manhattan High School, for earning the KSPA Hall of Fame Award this year. A long-time adviser of a weekly newspaper, yearbook and literary magazine, Wika retired from high school teaching in 2002 but still supports student journalism in Kansas. 

Wika received her award in a surprise announcement at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop in July 2024 in Manhattan, Kansas.

In 1995, KSPA became the first state organization to create a Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame in order to honor its own excellent members. As of 2024, 43 names have been added to the permanent Hall of Fame plaque that hangs in the KSPA office in KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism.

The KSPA Hall of Fame was begun as a way of honoring members and friends of high school journalism in Kansas who have contributed to the profession both at the state and national levels. The nominee will be judged on the following criteria: 1) Noteworthy service to KSPA and to the education of student journalists; 2) Outstanding personal achievement in student journalism; 3) Contribution to the field of student journalism. 

Two letters of recommendation provided the details about Penny: one from current Manhattan High School publications adviser Kristy Nyp and another from former JEA executive director Linda Puntney.

Wika’s excellence in journalism education has taken many shapes over decades of hard work.

In a photo from the Manhattan High School yearbook, Penny Wika receives an award for “outstanding service to scholastic journalism” from KSPA executive director John Hudnall.

Most distinctive, Wika’s staffs created a weekly newspaper, The Mentor, for the school community. This remains a rare feat in high school journalism: producing an edition each week. As Puntney wrote, “The Mentor was printed by the Manhattan Mercury, the hometown newspaper. The experience of working in the Mercury’s shop and interacting with
Mercury employees furthered their exposure to the profession.”

Wika also served Kansas high school journalism through her work outside of the high school. She attended and taught many sessions at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop at Kansas State University. Her students attended the workshop because she promoted its value in the classroom. She also taught English at the community-college level along with working in reporting after her retirement from Manhattan High School.

Wika’s financial contributions also have made an impact. In spring 2023, she created the Penny J. Wika Journalist of the Year Scholarship for MHS journalism students. Puntney also described how Wika “made a sizeable donation to underwrite the Flint Hills Publications Workshop and to provide lesser support annually for perpetuity.”

Here are some additional words of nomination from the letters: 

• Puntney wrote, “A lover of journalism and students, Wika put her professional journalism skills to work teaching
  students at Manhattan High School for nearly two decades. Her goal was to guide them in producing “real” journalism. And they did.”
• Nyp wrote, “Even though Penny Wika had retired in 2002, my new [2011] colleagues had many stories to tell about the successes she had and the way she led the student journalism program at Manhattan High. Under her accomplished leadership, the MHS students published a weekly newspaper, a detailed yearbook and a literary magazine that won numerous awards and prepared a large number of young people for careers in media and communications fields during her two decades at the helm, as well countless others who use skills learned in her classroom in other fields.”

Retired Manhattan adviser Penny Wika had her name added to the KSPA Hall of Fame plaque in July 2024. Also in the photo are three fellow Hall of Fame inductees: retired adviser Sharon Martin, Chase County High School adviser Linda Drake and retired JEA director Linda Puntney.

The selection committee provided these words in response to Wika’s nomination:

Among Penny Wika’s distinctions is being the adviser to one of the few high school newspapers in the nation to publish a weekly broadsheet. Over two decades, her students created detailed yearbooks and a literary magazine that won numerous awards, preparing young people for careers in media and communications. She presented sessions at KSPA conventions and at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop, and last year created the Penny J. Wika Journalist of the Year Scholarship for Manhattan High School journalism students.

The KSPA board and staff congratulate Penny Wika for her well-deserved place on the KSPA Hall of Fame plaque!