Accents Issue 3

Courage to Connect 2012

Hi Phillip!

I just wanted to con�rm the sessions you and your students signed up to teach at the spring conference. I've emailed the students that I had emails for (the student o�cers). If you could just con�rm that they'll be teaching the sessions, that would be fantastic :)

Session #1: AhhhCute Angles (with Coralia and Lizzie)A new twist on average topics. Helpful hints that help you make a story interesting using new angles.

Session # 2: Group Hug (with Coralia and Lizzie)Team bonding drives a sta�. Kill the cliques in your class and become a family.

Session #3: Finding the Color in Black and White (with Coralia and Frances Minor – could you talk with her about this? I don’t have her email)Just because an image lacks color doesn't mean it lacks meaning. Take photos that drive the point across, not matter their color.

Session #4: The Art of Editor War (with you and Katie Jones)

Session #5: Surviving InDesign (Haley Thornton – I don't have her email. Could you check with her? - and Richard Lipkin from Dutch Fork – if Haley can't do it, Richard can do it on his own. If she wants to teach it, I'll send you his email address so they can chat)If InDesign seems like an untamable beast, let these experienced sta� members show you the basics.

Session #6: Ducks in a Row (YB with Olivia Barthel and Rebecca Rowell from Lugo�-Elgin)If you are an editor, come get some great tips on leadership skills. Learn how to communicate with your sta�, manage the work e�ciently and lead your sta� through the murky waters of the pond.

Southern Interscholastic Press Association • USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications • April 2012 • Issue 3

Accents

Photo by Kelsey D’Amico, SIPA assistant & University of S.C. student Photo by Bradley Wilson, N.C. State Univer-sity doctoral student & SIPA board member

Photo by T.J. Maynes, University of South Carolina student

Photo by Brian Cole, George Walton Academy adviser Photo by Bradley Wilson Photo by Bradley Wilson

Photo by Kelsey D’Amico Photo by T.J. Maynes

SIPA’s Got Talent winner Carlo Nasisse, Clarke Central HS (Athens, Ga.), performs the accordion for his talent.

WIS-TV anchor Judi Gatson gives the Saturday keynote.

Bradley Wilson teaches Photoshop in Camera Connections, a pre-convention workshop.

SIPA assistant Jarad Greene gives an interview to a Broadcast On-the-Spot Feature team.

SIPA President Matt Shears, Northwest Guilford HS (Greensboro, N.C.), promotes the Facebook page.

Students learn InDesign in a pre-convention session.

Students dance during the Saturday night activity. Steve Johnson, University of Florida, gives the Friday night keynote.

Accents Issue 3April 20122

Executive Committee:Chair: Mary Inglis, Wellington HS, Fla. • Vice chair: Amy Medlock-Greene, Dutch Fork HS, S.C.

Secretary: Jenny Proctor, Lugoff-Elgin HS, S.C. • Past chair: Christie Gold, Hillsborough County Schools, Fla. President: Matt Shears, Northwest Guilford HS, N.C. • Vice president: Lizzie Doyle, Lee County HS, Ga. Members-at-large: Morgan Holton, Dutch Fork HS, S.C., and Emma Kissane, Clarke Central HS, Ga.

Appointed Members: Meredith Cummings, ASPA, Ala. • Joe Dennis, GSPA, Ga. • Cynthia Ferguson, Oxford HS, Miss. Beth Fitts, MSPA, Miss. • Brenda Gorsuch, West Henderson HS, N.C. • Coni Grebel, Lee County HS, Ga.

Monica Hill, NCSMA, N.C. • Valerie Kibler, Harrisonburg HS, Va. • Stella McCombs, Stratford HS, S.C. Mark Murray, Arlington ISD, Texas • Susan Newell, Northridge HS, Ala. Jake Palenske, NCompass Media, Texas • David Ragsdale, Clarke Central HS, Ga. Chris Waugaman, Prince George HS, Va. • Bradley Wilson, N.C.

Endowment Committee:Chairs: Beth Dickey, S.C., & Martha Rothwell, N.C. • Marilyn Chapman, S.C. • Sylvia Daughtry-Brown, Ga.

Chris Floore, Ga. • Mary Inglis, Fla. • Kay Phillips, N.C. • Jane Speidel, Fla.

DirectorCarol Pardun

Executive DirectorKaren Flowers

Scholastic Press ManagerLeslie Dennis

Accents DesignerLeslie Dennis

Office assistantsKelsey D’AmicoAshley GardnerRebecca Piner

April 2012, Issue 3AccentsSouthern Interscholastic Press Association • University of South Carolina • School of Journalism and Mass Communications • Columbia, SC 29208

Phone: 803.777.6284 • Fax: 803.777.4103 • Email: [email protected] • Website: http://sipa.sc.edu

Participants find courage at convention, must build on knowledge for next year

Mary InglisSIPA Chairperson

Courage builds.It starts with that first step

at the one-year mark –I think I can, I think I can—and then it becomes boundaries and fences which are gloriously surpassed when age and maturity and even necessity take over.

It can be running for an office in school, or joining the band, or trying to gain that ultimate first place in a sporting event by endless practice.

Asking someone who would never say yes, to say yes, and go with you to the Prom.

Speaking one-on-one with a perceived enemy – an adult- and asking the hard questions.

Joining an organization, committing to a relationship, sacrificing “you- time” for “them- time.”

Now, ironically, the courage to connect to our world is harder than ever. It seems like it would be a breeze. After all, how hard can it be? We have every connection device known to man.

But do we have the courage that it takes to direct ourselves on a successful path?

All that we have to bolster our courage is that inner drive, that force, which we call a conscience.

At our 2012 SIPA convention, courage was evident with our keynote speakers. Steve Johnson did an amazing opening job of showing our delegates what courage did for him.

At 22, he is employed by the University of Florida, teaching photography, and doing what he loves. Thomas Edison would call his genius “1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” Steve puts himself out there; he was seen post-convention at the Charlotte Airport passing the wait time with an older couple rocking in rocking chairs. It takes courage to connect.

But the rewards are great. It always feels so good after running a marathon, or studying for the hardest test imaginable (and doing well on it), delivering a speech, or building a project from scratch. We all have the little dog in us that says don’t do it; don’t worry about it; just relax.

But where are we at the end of the day if we do not take ourselves up a notch? Like the artificial plant, at the same place, day after day after day.

In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or wayBut to act that each tomorrow Find us farther than today.Find your courage. Nourish it. Act on it.

Do we have the courage that it takes to direct ourselves on a successful path?

“

”

AccentsIssue 3April 2012 3

Elizabeth DickeySIPA Endowment co-chair

Auction, used book sale continue fundraising efforts for Endowment

Picture this: Jane Speidel, newly retired

adviser from Titusville, Fla. takes a course in jewelry making. She’s hooked and decides to

create J-bobs, a line of artist-made earrings or ear bobs. Each pair is unique and crafted from gemstones, fresh water pearls and Czek crystals with either gold filled, vermeil or silver accent beads and spacers.

“I designed this collection for SIPA patrons,” Speidel said. “The auction helps to fund the SIPA Endowment for the benefits of SIPA, its advisers and students.”

Nineteen pairs of the J-bobs sold at the SIPA auction, bringing in $400.

“There’s something special about the SIPA auction,” Julie Sellers, former high school adviser, said. “Advisers seem to enjoy contributing as much as they enjoy bidding.”

By the end of the evening, total sales from the live and silent auctions totaled $2,589, Ashley Gardner, auction coordinator, said.

Another Endowment activity, the used book sale, brought in $300. Martha Rothwell, co-Endowment chair, proposed the idea last year, and this year advisers donated more than 500 books. At the end of the convention, the books that hadn’t been sold were divided between Hannah House for abused women in Columbia and Crescent East, a

government housing project in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Ann Hewitt, a former middle school principal, delivered

the books to the Alabama students who suffered from last year’s tornados.

“The books were received very well. The program director at Crescent East was grateful and most appreciative that the students were able to pick a book to keep if they wanted one,” Hewitt said. “More importantly, the students were excited about choosing a book they could keep. The comment that one young lady made expresses the appreciation best, ‘I can take it home and keep it? Thank you.’”

Two new members have joined the Endowment Committee – Jenny Proctor from Lugoff Elgin HS, S.C. and Melanie Huynh-Duc, Northwest Guilford HS, Greensboro, N.C.

Although the auction is the primary source of Endowment contributions, the opportunities to give last all year.

Contributions can be given in honor of someone or in memory of someone. Contributions may be given at any time.

Visit the SIPA website and click on Endowment and the direct link to the Central Carolina Community Foundation, which manages SIPA’s Endowment.

Helping SIPA’s future is as simple as a click.

The Elizabeth B. Dickey Scholarship, named in honor of SIPA’s executive director for 33 years is awarded by the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications to an outstanding SIPA student who will attend School of Journalism and Mass Communications in the fall.

This year’s recipient is senior Casey Drum of Glynn Academy in Brunswick, Ga. Drum works on her school’s yearbook staff as the senior advertising adviser, overseeing all the ads that will be put in the yearbook.

In high school, Drum was involved in various clubs, outside of yearbook, including Quill and Scroll, National Honors Society and BETA Club. She also was the 2009 winner of the Marshes of Glynn Essay Contest and part of the girls’ Golf team that won the State

Championship in 2010 and 2011. “I feel that [being involved in so many

activities] has given me a well-rounded high school experience and allowed me to explore and discover my capabilities and limitations,” Drum said. “I have a better understanding of myself because of these different social interactions.”

Drum is the first student from her school to be awarded any SIPA award. She joined the association by herself, so that she could have more opportunities to pursue her goals of attending USC’s SJMC.

“I am at the point of knowing my general career choice; I am now faced with the decision of which or how many of the smaller paths from journalism I will take,” Drum said. “I know that I will be successful as long

as I continue writing and loving every minute of it.”

Casey Drum receives Elizabeth B. Dickey Scholarship

Former SIPA director Elizabeth Dickey & Casey Drum, Glynn Academy (Brunswick, Ga.)

Photo by Kelsey D’Amico


President: Chloe Hargrave

New student officers elected at convention

Vice President: Collyn Taylor

Collyn currently serves as the co-editor of his school’s newsmagazine, The Renaissance, and is the first editor in two years to put out a hard copy of the paper as well as get it printed in full-color. He serves as the president of the school’s Key Club, is an honors student and volunteers annually at the Special Olympics. He is on the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association (SCSPA) board. He hopes to make SIPA a fun and remarkable experience for all students and advisers involved.

Clarke Central HS (Athens, Ga.)

Dutch Fork HS (Irmo, S.C.)

Member-At-Large: Anna RobertsLee County HS (Leesburg, Ga.)

Anna has served on her school’s newspaper, Panoptic, for the past three years, acting as an ad layout manager, an assistant copy editor, writing coach and head writer. She said that SIPA offers a lot to her, and she plans to offer a lot to SIPA. She wants to bring innovative ideas and catalyzing concepts to the convention that has molded her into a better journalist.

Chloe serves as the news editor of her school’s newsmagazine, Odyssey. She was also nominated and accepted into the Washington Journalism Institute. As part of the SIPA executive board, she wants to plan more interactive classes that will interest and inspire students to push their knowledge of journalism as well as encourage them to tackle bigger stories. Below is a revised version of her presidential speech.

The general idea of leading by example isn’t just an overused theme, but it’s what I learned my first year in journalism from Fakari Gresham, and it’s what I base my leadership on, whether in the Odyssey newsmagazine’s classroom, or when I take on my first responsibilities as SIPA’s 2012-13

President. Leading by example is leading the rookies. It’s showing them what they need to be in order to keep the next years of journalism alive. It’s continuing, from a sentimental perspective, tradition. Leading by example is taking on and completing the responsibilities.

I grasped the concept of leading by example when I became Odyssey’s news editor. I began to lead a four-person staff, and I quickly learned that in order to successfully produce a news section, I had to become the leader. I jumped into the role of asking things from others and expecting them to meet deadlines. I became the person that I had looked up to dur-ing my first year as a student journalist.

And for the 2012-13 year of SIPA, I will be in that same position. As SIPA President, I understand that I have to be just as involved in the 2013 convention as everyone else, so I can ensure a convention that is successful. However, as a primary leader for the 2013 convention, the meaning of leading by example has altered. I’m not alone in this.

Leading by example goes further than that. Leading by example is working hard to show others that you’re a strong leader. To lead by example is to show that you’re motivated to work hard and that you’re motivated to create a name for yourself. My purpose in leading by example is to transfer that passion to other journalists, so they will be prepared for what is coming next.


Frank LoMonte has come to SIPA every year since he took over as SPLC’s executive director in 2008. Sometimes he has driven half the night to come from another engagement in another state, but he has always been here for SIPA - and for others in the SIPA region.

As director of Virginia’s jCamp, SIPA board member Valerie Kibler has also experienced LoMonte’s passion for scholastic journalism.

“He engages young people in an area they aren’t often interested in and mesmerizes them with his real life stories from the field,” Kibler said. “He’s animated, excited and passionate about his job and his work with kids, and his spark is certainly contagious!”

Phillip Caston, an SIPA Advisory Council member from South Carolina, praises Frank for working with the Mannuscript staff during last year’s convention to help them with prior review and prior restraint issues.

“Despite his busy schedule, he spent that extra time to not only meet with my students, but to genuinely listen to their concerns and give sound, professional advice,” Caston said. “He spoke with them like young adults and did not talk down to them as so many have done. A man of Mr. LoMonte’s knowledge and character is what scholastic journalists need as an ally in their continuous battle for First Amendment rights.”

Elizabeth B. Dickey Distinguished Service Awards

Frank LoMonteChris Floore

Dependable, reliable, loyal – all words that describe Chris Floore when you think about his relationship to SIPA.

He has been involved in SIPA for half his life, has attended more than 15 conventions and is just barely 30.

Floore began coming to SIPA conventions as a student in high school on Tammy Watkins’ Tribal Tribune staff at Wando HS.

Then he came to the University of South Carolina as a broadcast major and volunteered to help at SIPA conventions.

Even after he graduated from the School of Journalism and moved away, he continued to come back each March to help.

Floore has been willing to drive hundreds of miles – even when SIPA

couldn’t pay him milleage – to work long hours at the convention.

For years he had to take off from a hectic PR job with a school district where he was constantly putting out fires and winning lots

of awards to work for no pay at SIPA conventions – still putting out fires and doing AV set-ups, hall patrols, assisting in any way the staff needed him.

If you asks what he does, he’ll say, “Keep Leslie sane.”

He is the youngest member of the Endowment Committee. He’s a big spender at the auctions.

And he now works for the Mayor of Macon, Georgia, as his spokesman.

Even though SIPA awarded Floore the DSA, he could have easily received a volunteer of the year award.

SIPA Scholastic Press Manager Leslie Dennis has been involved in scholastic journalism for half her life but began her experience in high school somewhat unwillingly.

Taking Journalism I as an “easy A,” Dennis said she kept taking newspaper only because of her adviser’s constant encouragement and coercion.

Dennis was the SCSPA Journalist of the Year in 2003 and credits her adviser for changing the course of her life.

And paying it forward, Dennis has helped SIPA continue to change and

evolve. As a freshman English major at the University of South Carolina, Dennis began working in the SIPA office and hasn’t left since.

“Her work with advisers, students, speakers, office staff, hotel staff – ev-eryone she comes into contact with at the SIPA convention – speaks to both her leadership and patience,” David Ragsdale, Clarke Central HS adviser, said. “With so many fires burning (sometimes literally), she provides helpful, personalized assistance with grace and poise.”

Ragsdale said he suspects she recalls her own positive experiences growing up with SIPA when she works diligently to grow the next gen-eration of scholastic press association advocates.

“I’ve seen her deal with everything from students displaying their public affection in the hotel, to hotel fires with a sense of maturity and author-ity,” Bradley Wilson, doctoral student at N.C. State University and SIPA board member, said.

Leslie Dennis

Photo by T.J. Maynes




For the first time, SIPA awarded the Outstanding Service Award, an award that recognizes individuals who have contributed extraordinary amounts of time, talent and energy to scholastic journalism.

MARIE PARSONSMarie Parsons is a

retired University of Alabama instructor and director of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association and current Journalism Educator Association mentor in Alabama.

As a graduate student at UA, Parson’s found her love for scholastic journalism, immediately becoming involved. Twenty-eight years ago she helped in creating the university’s first Minority Journalism Workshop, which is now the Multicultural Journalism Workshop for underrepresented high school students. She also helped with the state-wide conventions and workshops geared toward helping educate high school journalism students.

After graduate school she was hired by UA as an instructor and the director of ASPA.

“Marie now holds the official title of emeritus director of the Alabama Scholastic Press Association, but in my eyes she holds the unofficial title of saint,” Jennifer Greer, former director of ASPA and present UA Department of Journalism Chair said.

In 2008 she help convince the provost to hire a new director, Meredith Cummings and remains a mentor to Cummings whenever help is needed.

Cummings regards Parsons as a life saver. As a student of Parsons’s at UA, Cummings was

inspired get a master’s degree in journalism by this teacher with whom she saw as a “strong, independent woman who let us know that reporting is fun and teaching can be a (quietly) glamorous profession.”

Though officially retired, Parson’s is still active in the

journalism community. She is still a consultant to ASPA, helping with special projects for MJW and ASPA, she teaches sessions at conventions and is a mentor to new high school journalism advisers.EDMUND SULLIVAN

Edmund Sullivan is the executive director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, housed at Columbia University in New York City.

Sullivan was involved with CSPA long before he became director in 1981. He has always been a champion for scholastic journalism fighting for the First Amendment rights of student journalists.

The award which bears his name – the Edmund J. Sullivan Award – is given to student journalists who have fought for the right to speak their minds while in pursuit of the truth on behalf of their audiences.

SIPA and CSPA have a long history and a warm friendship that began almost 40 years ago.

Just after SIPA moved from Georgia to the University of South Carolina, long-time CSPA leaders and SIPA executive committee members Chuck Savedge and Jim Paschal encouraged Dean Al Scroggins and Director Beth Dickey to take busloads of students from the Carolinas to the fall CSPA conventions.

Dickey and Dean Scroggins did this for 10 years, starting in 1975. On each trip Dickey said they were welcomed and treated royally by their CSPA hosts.

Even though those SIPA to CSPA bus trips have gone the way of other such activities of the past, SIPA’s relationship

with CSPA continues to this day. Our members have won Gold Key Awards, and their

publications have won Gold and Silver Crowns.Dickey received the Charles R. O’Malley award for

Excellence in Teaching.Scholastic press association directors with close SIPA ties

have won the Paschal Award – Beth Dickey, Julie Dodd, Beth Fitts, Karen Flowers, Monica Hill, Bruce Konkle, and Kay Phillips.

“We look to Ed for guidance and support,” Karen Flowers, SIPA director said, “and we appreciate his passion for scholastic journalism.”

SIPA awards Marie Parsons, Ed Sullivan Out standing Service Awards

Former Alabama Scholastic Press Association director Marie Parsons


Columbia Scholastic Press Association director Edmund J. Sullivan


SIPA’s Freedom of the Press Award was initiated in 1989 in recognition of an adviser’s or staff’s use of First Amendment rights on the high school level.

The award, given periodically when someone makes a strong stand for scholastic journalism, was named in honor of Joseph Shoquist, former dean of the College of Journalism.

This year’s award was given to J.L. Mann High School’s Mannuscript staff, a newspaper staff that dared to take on the principal.

Spirit Week, a time-honored tradition for J.L. Mann HS and the surrounding schools, raises money for charities. It has always been the pride of these schools that 95 to100 percent of the profits from Spirit Week go to charities that the students choose.

Last August the principal of J.L Mann told the student council that 25 percent was going to a bus program for at-risk students and 5 percent would go to the PTSA. The matter was non-negotiable. Parents and students were outraged, but the administration did not seem to care.

The seniors were especially upset because that would mean money would be taken from a foundation that honors a student who died in 2006 and would have graduated this school year.

The student council turned to the Mannuscript’s editor-in-chief, Coralia Balasca, and managing editor, senior Lizzie Davis, to help raise awareness of what was happening in hopes of changing the administration’s mind.

The two editors told their adviser, Phillip Caston, about the story and asked to do a special four-page issue. He agreed, knowing that they were in for a fight.

“What happened next,” Caston said, “was student journalism at its finest. The two editors conducted lengthy interviews with the student body president, charity heads, and the principal. The editor-in-chief’s hour and a half long interview with the principal was something to behold. The young journalist never backed down or became intimidated. She grilled him with tough questions.”

The staff created side stories and graphs for the issue to show the break up of the money and how the other schools in the area distributed the money raised in their own Spirit Weeks. They also allowed the student body president, the principal and one of the charities’ founders to write editorial columns. The staff editorial took the side of the student council.

After the special edition was finalized, the adviser sent it to the principal for prior review, as he is forced to do with

every issue. He heard nothing. He sent the edition to the printer

before leaving school that day.The adviser learned from a parent that the principal

might have reached a compromise with the charities in order to fund the bus program, which would then make the work of his staff worthless. The principal then asked if they could put off the publication until they had a meeting.

That Tuesday, the adviser went into the principal’s office, where he was chastised for multiple things including:

• the paper should not be called an open forum. • referring to staff members by their last names is disrespectful.• the paper should not publish quotes that put school staff in a bad light. Calling the issue a potential educational

disruption, the administration sent it to the district office. However, the district administration sided with the newspaper and said the principal did not have cause to censor the paper.

The assistant principal, who was also in the meeting with the adviser and the principal, told the adviser if the staff made the changes, they could run the issue. The editor-in-chief decided to make the small changes and not fight it.

The next day the adviser was told the charities had come to an agreement to fund the bus program. The staff decided to distribute the issue with a letter by the editor explaining why the information was

outdated.The staff had positive feedback complimenting them on

being courageous and telling the students information no one else would.

After the publication and distribution of the special edition, the administration gave the adviser a memo saying the staff used poor journalism techniques and stating that the administration objected to the use of the word “compromise” in the inserted letter as opposed to the word “agreement,” along with expectations for future articles to provide balanced coverage, with no disrespect to any staff member and proper formatting of the paper.

After the adviser asked for further explanation as to how the staff could have practiced better journalism techniques, the assistant principal said that the content was “written too carefully.”

Caston said, “I believe what the staff produced is excellent, hard-hitting journalism at its finest. And I still stand by them.”

Mannuscript staff receives Freedom of the Press Award

Along with J.L. Mann HS adviser Phillip Caston (center), Mannuscript newspaper editors Lizzie Davis and Coralia Balasca accept the Joseph Shoquist Freedom of the Press Award.


Southern Interscholastic Press AssociationUniversity of South CarolinaSchool of Journalism and Mass CommunicationsColumbia, SC 29208

June 13-17, 2012www.sc.edu/cmcis/so/sipa/cjiColumbia, S.C.University of South CarolinaSchool of Journalism & Mass Comm.803.777.6284 • [email protected]

carol naournalism

institute a sipa summer workshop

Accents Issue 3

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