CLAFLIN — The Pipeline Staff at USD 112’s Central Plains High School makes teacher Leslie Crites’ job easy she says.
“Great students, great people, good character,” she said. “I have a great staff. I’ve been so spoiled this year — I mean the writing has been strong, they work so hard, and they’re good independent workers and problem solvers.”
With praise like that, it’s no wonder the staff qualified with 15 entries for the Kansas Scholastic Press Association’s State Contest to be held May 7 on the campus at the University of Kansas. This year, the students set up a facebook page. The rest of their class time is taken up with writing and design work.
That work is done on industry software like Adobe Creative Suite 6. While Kylee Kasselman enjoys laying out the design and choosing the themes, Kaylyn Oberle and Cassidy Crites enjoy taking photos. Janae Ryan said writing stories is her favorite activity. Teacher Leslie Crites makes certain each student takes a turn with each activity, though, rather than allowing them to specialize, she said.
Oberle admits it was a surprise they did so well this year, particularly because they are from such a small school.
“We think about it as class work, rather than competition,” she said. “Then, we go out and we realize we have the potential to do great in competition.”
So far, the Pipeline staff see themselves going into fields other than design in the future. But, they understand the value of their experience for their other fields. Kasselman even imagines doing photography as side work to her preferred path of nursing.
Kansas Scholastic Press Association is a non-profit association of more than 100 high school and middle school journalism programs. Its mission is to promote excellence in high school journalism publications and education.