The newspaper and yearbook staff won 35 awards and two Silver Stars at the Interscholastic League Press Conference Spring convention, April 16-17.

“It’s really nice to see all the students’ hard work pay off,” adviser Kel Lemons said. “It was really fun to see what won and revisit some of those stories, photos and designs. It also kind of reminded us how important it is to have publications that really strive to bring new, interesting and relevant stories to the Rouse community.”

For the ILPC Individual Achievement Awards in the 6A division, the yearbook won 10 awards for the 2015 Replay, including taking first place in the theme category. Editor Grace McNamara won two design awards, second place for the Make-A-Wish page in the Student Life Spread category and third place for the girls soccer spread in the Soccer Spread category.

“With the soccer page that I had it was cool to place in it because it was one of the first spreads that I ever made,” McNamara said. “When I won an award for it I felt that I had did it justice.”

Even though it’s not published yet, the staff entered the 2016 yearbook in a current IAAs division. They won five of the six design categories, taking first in the Feature, Sports, Class Section, Club/Organization and Multi-topic spread categories.

“We’ve never entered the current year category before so it’s pretty amazing to do so well,” Lemons said. “I think it says a lot about how beautiful the new book is and what an impact it’s going to have.”

The newspaper staff won 19 IAAs for stories, photos and designs printed in 2015 and 2016 issues of the Raider Rumbler. They brought home seven first place finishes, including taking first and second place in the sports news category. RNN producer Cameron Holland teamed up with yearbook staffer Lexi Vela to take photos, video and interview of cross country district for the Rumbler’s website and print edition.

“I think it’s really cool to be able to get second with the story,” RNN producer Cameron Holland said. “Being at the event at 6:30 in the morning and staying all day covering the event was really fun and Lexi and I being able to get the story written and put on the website within an hour of getting back was excited to know that we could make a very decent story and have it up in that amount of time.”

In addition to the individual awards, both the newspaper and yearbook were nominated for Stars, ILPC’s highest honors for high school publications. The Replay received a Silver Star for the 2015 yearbook and Raider Rumbler earned a Silver Star for the 2015-16 newspaper. Only about five percent of Texas schools receive a Star rating of bronze, silver or gold.

“Getting a Star is one of the highest achievements we can get as a school newspaper,” Rumbler Editor-in-Chief Jordan Buie said. “I have a great staff and we’ve all put in a lot to get where we are.”

ILPC INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS – YEARBOOK
Theme Selection and Development Maddie Bonvillian & Anthony Pangonas – 1^st
Feature Spread Holly Garcia & Michelle Contreras – 1^st
Student Life Spread Grace McNamara & Morgan Spring – 2^nd
Sports Spread Grace McNamara & Bethany Kurdi – 3^rd
Academic Spread Jordan O’Brien – 1^st
Club/Organization Spread Jaci Chavera, Joe Lipsey – 3^rd Keesley Strohschein & Bethany Kurdi – HM
Multi Topic Spread Kelsey Staber, Joe Lipsey – HM
Academic Photo Katie Hebdon – 2^nd
Club-Organization Photo Izzy Lopez – 1^st
 

ILPC CURRENT INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS – YEARBOOK
Feature Spread Keesley Stroschein – 1^st
Sports Spread Kayla Youngblood – 1^st
Class Section Spread Chloe Hatfield – 1^st
Club/Organization Spread Jaci Chavera – 1^st
Multi-Topic Spread Jaci Chavera – 1^st
Photo Portfolio Zac Franklin – HM
 

ILPC INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS – NEWSPAPER
Editorial Writing Jordan Buie – HM
Sports News Story Lila Liljedahl – 1^st, Staff – 2^nd
Sports Feature Story Destiny De La Paz – 3^rd
Entertainment Review Staff – HM
Photo Story Jordan Buie – 1^st, Destiny De La Paz – HM
In Depth News/Feature Story Jordan Buie – 2^nd
Comic Strip Belle Calderon – 1^st
Page One Design Michelle Contreras – 3^rd
Sports Page/Spread Design Alyssa Jingling – 1^st
Feature Page/Spread Design Kristin Nicol – 2^nd, Tyler Roberge – HM
Entertainment Page/Spread Design Jordan Buie – HM
News Page Design Michelle Contreras – 1^st
Editorial Page/Spread Design Jordan Buie – HM
Double Truck Design Kristin Nicol – 1^st
Feature Photo Lorenz Schuerk – 2^nd
Headlines Staff – 1^st