The FHS Fentonian, InPrint, InPrint Online and News took home 81 individual awards, and three Spartan Awards from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) spring award and on-site contest ceremony in April. This is the 36th year the publications have submitted their work to be included in these contests.
“I think our staff won 45 awards because of the year round dedication that we put into our book. We know what past years have done and each year we try to improve to create an even better product,” Fentonian Co-Editor in Chief Michael Fabatz said. “We spend countless hours on weekends, during SRTs and every Monday night in order to achieve a quality product that we can be proud of. Winning 45 awards justified every hour spent after school.”

Awards can help each staff see what they are best at, but can also help show what they are lacking. Photographers use MIPA award ceremonies to see where they could improve.

“It is helpful to get ideas from other photos because it makes it is an example of what a good picture looks like taken from different angles,” Photo Editor Alyssa Branoff said. “It helps give me and other photographers inspiration to be creative with the shots you can get and a general idea of what kinds of pictures to take when they are at events.”

The Fenton InPrint Online has won its first Spartan Award this year even though it was created created in 2011. This is the first year that all three publication staffs have won Spartan Awards.

“Winning a Spartan award is important because it gives credibility to our staff, and it legitimizes our work,” InPrint Online Co-Editor in Chief Alexis Megdanoff said. “I started laughing, shaking, and screaming all at once when I saw our name up there. Imagine wanting something for three years and constantly working toward it while getting others to see your idea and then finally being rewarded for it. I think we won the award because we finally have a credible publication, and we take criticism and become better from it.”

The FHS Newscast won eight individual awards from their submissions this year.

“I want to go into a career in film, so submitting these videos and receiving awards for them is something I can put on my college application to show that I am experienced in film,” FHS News member Zeinab Torabi said. “Creating these videos to submit gives me more experience to get better at film and I really enjoy it. Getting chosen for awards is nice because you feel like what you are doing is worth something and inspires me to keep making more.”

To see which awards were won for each staff, click here.

MIPA announces 2016 contest results