Southern Interscholastic Press Association • USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications • November 2011 • Issue 1

AccentsPut 12:01 a.m., Monday, Nov.

14 on your electronic device or calendar.

If you go to bed early, set your alarm for midnight. Your quick action will mean that for every $30 you donate, $40 will be added to the SIPA Endowment by the Central Carolina Community Foundation. The maximum donation is $100, and it must be made online with a credit card.

Once the CCCF has met its daily match of $3,333, no other donations will be matched that day.

“This is a good deal,” Mary Inglis, SIPA chairperson and Wellington HS (Fla.) adviser, said. “We and two other organization are competing for the matching funds on Nov. 14, so I plan to have my computer ready and will make my online donation at 12:01 a.m..” Here’s how to do it:

1 – Go to www.yourfoundation.org or go directly to Give now: https://www.yourfoundation.org/givenow.aspx (then skip step 2)2 – Click on “Give Now” located in the upper right hand of the page.3 – Under Please apply my gift to the following: Choose - A Specific Fund4 – A Fund Name box will appear. Type in Southern Interscholastic Press Association.5 – Select a donation amount or choose “other” and type in an amount.6 – Provide your contact information. Pay attention to the required fields.7 – I would like my gift to be made (fill in if donation is in honor or memory of someone.) This is not a required field.8 – Billing Information: : Fill in all three lines. (Credit Card # – no spaces are needed between numbers, CW—3 digit number on back of the card and Expiration date) Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit cards will be accepted.9 – Click Make a Donation and your gift will be processed.10 – You will receive an email (at the email address you provided in the contact information area) verifying your gift.

The SIPA Endowment was created in 1994 and has grown to $140,000.

It is managed by the Central Carolina Community Foundation, which handles investments for 42 other agency endowment funds.

“Investments are handled by Vanguard, the only client-owned mutual fund company in the world, delivering exceptional value to a single set of owners,” Jo Bull, chief operating officer, said.

Both SIPA and the CCCF are nonprofit organizations.SIPA gets a check each year to help with convention

programming and speaker expenses, scholarships and support for advisers in the Southern region with mentors through the JEA mentor program.

“Teaching is transformative and good teachers never stop learning,” Sandy Woodcock, NAA Foundation, said. “Proof of that is SIPA’s investment in mentoring.”

Northwest Guilford HS’s (Greensboro, N.C.) newspaper, advised by Melanie Huynh-Duc, a former mentee of Martha Rothwell, is an NSPA Pacemaker finalist this year, and Northwest student, Matt Shears, is SIPA president.

The silent and live auction at the convention support the Endowment as do other activities such as the used book sale and penny wars.

Other ways to support the Endowment include lifetime memberships for $500, donations in honor of advisers and other living individuals and memorials in memory of a loved one.

Former Dean A. Scroggins urged the SIPA Executive Committee to create its Endowment. He used to say, “One of these days there’s going to be a snow storm on day one of the convention. Since SIPA gets most of its operating money from the convention, that would be a disaster. An endowment will ensure the stability of the organization.”

Mary Inglis made the first donation to the Endowment in memory of her father.

Martha Rothwell and Beth Dickey serve as co-chairs, and other members of the Endowment Committee are Sylvia Daughtry Brown, Marilyn Chapman, Chris Floore, Inglis, Kay Phillips and Jane Speidel.

Endowment Match Day: Nov. 14About the SIPA Endowment

Northwest Guilford HS newspaper adviser, Melanie Huynh-Duc, helps a student in journalism. The SIPA Endowment Fund supports the JEA Mentoring Program, in which Huynh-Duc was a participant.

Accents Issue 1November 20112

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’Amico

Jenna EckelAshley GardnerRebecca Piner

November 2011, Issue 1AccentsSouthern 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: schopres@mailbox.sc.edu • Website: http://sipa.sc.edu

Last night John Inglis and I attended a 60th birthday party and lived to tell about it.

The theme was Casino Night, and the house was awash with lights, two chandeliers in the covered pool area, 10 gaming tables, girls in high headdress feathers,

a lavish food buffet, photographers, dealers, Las Vegas nightclub-style crooners accompanied by real musical instruments.

An outfit out of Ft. Lauderdale puts on these evenings, where each person gets a card and is given a certain number of chips at the tables. When ready to cash chips out, guests can trade them for raffle tickets which are drawn for guest prizes at the end of the night.

This was not a fundraiser. This was a FUN raiser. And don’t worry about where the host and hostess slept after their 300 + guests finally left. They have two houses.

High energy was in the air. Invitees were anywhere from ages 25 to 75. (60-year-olds have children who could be in their 40s.) Everyone was dressed to kill, and the main objective was fun.

There was one guy there whom we shall call “Albert”(not his real name.) Albert was gloomy and doomy. Albert has always been a dour sort, getting by, having problems, complaining about the system. Albert is now retired, and a more miserable retiree you will not find.

Our publications require truth and honest practice, but many times we forget that they should be fun, too. My editor-in-chief this year is factoring back in the fun on our

staff. She has color-coded deadlines. Our first deadline is “red.” All staff are required to wear red, and we will party on red food.

It took a while, but the fun factor is catching on. We like being there, and we like being in our decorated yearbook room, with gummy pumpkins on the glass windows, upright scarecrows on the Dell computers, fall flowers on the Macs, an original hand-painted birthday board and the inspirational watercolor-painted sayings, like, “Don’t forget to be awesome!”

Energy comes from within. Mary Poppins said it best: “In every job that’s to be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game!”

Energize your staff. Do something completely crazy. Include everyone. Do a Coke-Pepsi-Ginger Ale-Sprite blindfold taste contest. Have everyone bring in a secret gift and draw a number every day for a daily prize.

It’s easy to be the “Albert” on staff and find things wrong with any and everything the staff tries to do. But just as this column was easier to write in the aftermath of the Casino Night birthday, so will your publication exude the energy and life that comes with that infusion of fun that is the necessary opposite of the grim realities that face us daily.

Staffs need to have ‘an element of fun’

Mary InglisSIPA Chairperson

Energize the staff. Do something completely crazy. Include everyone.

“

”

AccentsIssue 1November 2011 3

A student in my sophomore English class impressed me with her talent for writing and her personality for leadership. As she looked for an elective for her junior year, I strongly urged her to try journalism. After working

as a staff writer her junior year and then an editor-in-chief her senior year, she graduated and moved on to major in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her first job after graduation was to work at a public relationships firm where she headed the Krispy Kreme account.

She will quickly tell you she would never have considered journalism as an elective in high school, a major in college or a first job had she not been encouraged to take journalism. She had fun, found personal success, made lifelong friends and experienced the power of the press. Today, journalism is not just her job but a passion.

Mentors affect mentees in the same way journalism teachers affect their students. After beginning journalism advisers are assigned to advise the journalism classes not by their own choice. They do not recognize their talent and ability to lead students to become successful, passionate journalists, nor do they know how much fun and rewarding the world of journalism is.

Mentors can introduce their mentees to the world of scholastic journalism. As mentors, our job is to spotlight the advisers’ talents and abilities and open doors to venues

where they can share those strengths with other advisers, learn from the strengths of others and find support and friendships. As the mentees work diligently, the mentors flavor their days with fun and laughter.

Mentors provide the tools to smooth the rough spots and enhance the fun times. Ultimately as mentors, our job is to help them find personal success in the journalism classroom and experience the power of the press.

Just as teachers help students find their niche in journalism, mentors escort their mentees into the world of

journalism. Mentors, as former advisers, once showed students the world of journalism and now they share that world with mentees. Mentors introduce mentees to a course of study, a profession, a love, we hope, a passion.

All things mentors hope the mentees will pass along to students.

We hope retiring advisers will consider mentoring as a way to continue their involvement in journalism education and as a way to help a beginning

adviser find the excitement and rewards of advising. Help scholastic journalism continue to thrive through JEA mentoring.

If you are a beginning adviser, contact your JEA state director or your state scholastic press association director for information on how you can benefit from the JEA mentoring program.

Don’t you love it when you are on the winning side of a win-win situation?

Martha RothwellJEA Mentor (N.C.) &

SIPA Endowment co-chair

Mentor program helps young advisers, provides outlet for retirees‘A win-win situation’

Fostering the Future

Through funds from the SIPA Endowment, SIPA is proud to support the JEA Mentoring Program by sponsoring mentors in Alabama, North Carolina

and South Carolina.

Congratulat ions to the following SIPA members!NSPA Pacemaker finalists

NewspaperThe Southerner, Henry W. Grady HS (Ga.)Panther Pride, Midlothian HS (Texas)Northwest Horizons, Northwest Guilford HS (N.C.)Wingspan, West Henderson HS (N.C.)

NewsmagazineThe Odyssey, Clarke Central HS (Ga.)

Dow Jones News Fund Adviser Awards

Distinguished AdviserSusan Colyer, Southside HS (Ark.)Erin Coggins, Sparkman HS (Ala.)Chris Waugaman, Prince George HS (Va.)

Accents Issue 1November 20114

Three days. Seventy-two hours. Over 4,300 minutes

of courage and connection.

But the numbers don’t just stop there: over 70 classes taught by high school advisers

and professional journalists; two keynote speakers; dozens of on-the-spot entry competitions; a plethora of Quiz Bowl questions; more regional awards than you can count. And just in case that’s not enough, plan to come in a little early for Connect Four – four pre-convention hours of intensive hands-on journalism learning.

Hours of classes can be at your fingertips in Columbia, S.C. at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association covention March 2-4 – in addition, of course, to some a old-fashioned SIPA ice cream social, dance party and talent show fun. Those who have attended before know there is nothing better than the energy created by hundreds of high school journalists from across the region. Once again we’ll gather for a long weekend of connecting ideas and learning from the experts whose shoes we hope to fill in the future.

Your SIPA officers – Matt, Lizzie, Morgan and I – not only hope you attend, we want you to find the courage to immerse yourselves in each hour and connect with the best the world of scholastic journalism has to offer.

Classes will cover a multitude of journalistic topics such as the interview tips that will bring articles from successful to successfully innovative and engaging computer design skills that will bring your publication from drab and cluttered to eye-catching and sensible. Make sure you connect classes that fit your job description, but also have the courage to try at least one class out of your comfort zone.

Start planning your strategy with your staff now: how can you make the most of this opportunity to connect with the best? How can you step it up and bring your publications to a whole new level of excellence? How can we all draw on the courage of the great journalists who have gone before us and channel that into the energy of scholastic journalism today?

It all begins with finding the Courage to Connect.

Emma KissaneSIPA Member-at-large

Convention offers classes, entertainment, contests

sipa’s got talent registration form**Please email this information to sipaofficers@gmail.com**

School _________________________________________________Adviser’s name __________________________________________ City, State ___________________________________________

Please circle one: Individual Act Staff Act

Individual name and grade ______________________________OR Number of Participants in Staff Group __________

Name of Act and Description _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What do you need from us? (mic, speakers, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________

*Please fill out a separate form for each act. Staffs are not limited to one individual act. All acts must be limited to three minutes. Bring any props

and costumes for the act. SIPA is NOT liable for any theft, lost or damaged items, so please be careful and thoughtful of what you bring. Please make

sure your act is school appropriate!

AccentsIssue 1November 2011 5

courage t connectmagazine • newsprint • online • photography • video • yearbook

Get ready for March 2; get ready to have the Courage to Connect Everybody

has a story.We hear

it so often in journalism circles that it has almost become a

cliché. What we don’t always hear, however, is how the story teller fits into the picture.

What happens to the story itself relies on us.

Whether the story will live on for posterity or die like yesterday’s headline depends on the messenger. The storyteller. The guy with the worn-down pencil, the disheveled notepad, the head full of html codes and open-ended questions.

Today’s stories rely on us – the journalists.

That’s pretty frightening.It can be scary to wear the hats

of gatekeeper, watchdog and wordsmith all at once. Scarier still is the realization that journalism’s history has always been battle-filled – from courtroom battles for First Amendment rights to more literal battles as reporters write and soldiers fight, side by side in the Middle East. Truly it seems as if regardless of the number of hats they must wear, journalists today need a double dose of courage under each hat.

Courage.Enter SIPA’s 2012 spring conference.

A three-day booster shot immersed in scholastic journalism, centered around the Courage to Connect.

When your student officers – Matt, Emma, Morgan and I – were given the challenge of coming up with a theme for this year’s conference, we struggled to tie together journalism’s rich history with its ever-changing present and promising future, its

proven print and broadcast platforms with newer networking venues.

We also wanted to help individual reporters affirm their connections with their own staffs and at the same time, with a larger circle of scholastic journalists across the South. And we wanted to recognize the importance of media convergence in a world of instant gratification.

But most of all, we wanted to voice the elephant in the newsroom – the fact that while those outside the newsroom door may or may not realize it, it takes great courage to be journalist.

Courage to break the story that administrators won’t like. Courage to place your work under public scrutiny. Courage to grow open ears, watchful eyes and thicker skin. Courage to send the story back again and again until it’s good enough. Courage to go beyond who-what-where-when-why-how and so-what journalism to reveal real world wonders.

Courage to know that the newsroom today is not the newsroom of yesterday and to rejoice in the new opportunities that brings. Courage to grow from reporter to journalist. Courage to be the storyteller who makes the story live on.

Whether your staff collaborates over a broadcast, a printed newsmagazine or newspaper, a

yearbook, an online presence or any combination therein, joining us at the March convention promises to foster your Courage to Connect.

Every aspect of planning – including theme, speakers and curriculum choices – has been student-generated and has happened with you in mind. At this point, the only thing missing is your commitment to be there.

It may seem like a lifetime away, but the festivities are actually just around the corner.

So connect with your inner courage-keeper and make sure your staff is represented.

For those who are truly courageous, consider running for a student office.

There’s nothing like a little extra jolt of leadership to help connect you to the bigger picture behind SIPA: networking, an awareness of new age media, a chance to work side by side with

the South’s most renown collection of educators in scholastic journalism.

Meanwhile, remember everybody truly does have a story, cliché or not. But those who tell the story best are the ones who have looked deep within and found the Courage to Connect.

See you March 2. Oh, and be sure to pack your courage.

Lizzie DoyleSIPA Student Vice President

SIPA Convention 2012March 2-4

Friday night’s keynote speaker:Steve Johnson,

freelance multimedia journalistwww.stevejohnsonmedia.com

Go to the convention website for updates and information:

http://sipa.sc.edu/con.html

SIPA 2012

Accents Issue 1November 20116

SIPA Convent ion and CJI Planning ListIf you plan ahead and provide a payment plan, you & your staff can be attend SIPA’s annual convention March 2-4, 2012, and/or SIPA’s summer workshop, the Carolina Journalism Institute, June 13-17, 2012.

USE THE FOLLOWING TO HELP YOU PLAN.TOTAL COSTS:SIPA Convention • Room for TWO nights: $293.04 (includes tax)/4 per room = $73.26 • Convention Registration = $75 (students); $85 (advisers); $0 (advisers with 10+ students/guest speakers & judges) • Carry-in contests and on-site competitions are extra.

Transportation = $ _______________

Misc expenses = $ _______________

Total cost per student to attend SIPA convention = $148.26 (not including transportation and contests/competitions)

CJI • Room for FOUR nights: 4 students per room=$120 ($30 per night); 3 per room=$160; 2 per room=$225; single room=$425 • CJI Registration = $225 (earlybird) • Lab fee for design and video classes is $25 extra.

Transportation = $ _______________

Misc expenses = $ _______________

Total cost per student to attend CJI = $345 (in quad occupancy & not including transportation, food and lab fee)

COST FOR ONE STUDENT TO ATTEND SIPA & CJI (not including transportation, miscellaneous expenses and contest/lab fees) = $493.26

PAYMENT PLAN – Set up a payment plan with a deposit, after you adjust for transportation and other costs, so students can pay throughout the school year instead of one large sum. If a student comes to both SIPA and CJI and has a six-month payment plan, he/she will pay less than $100 a month!

AccentsIssue 1November 2011 7

Mail-In Contest Made Easy

Broadcast Script WritingThe script should be complete in directions for audio, video and timing. Students may enter their scripts in one of the following categories:

• Academic Script• News Script• PSA Script• Sports Script

Literary Magazine • Drama • Poetry • Prose Fiction and Narrative • Prose Non-fiction

Newspaper• Editorial Column • Entertainment/Feature Column • Feature Story • News Feature• News Story • Personality Feature • Reviews

• Sports Story • Sports Column • Sports Feature• Staff Editorial

Photo CutlinesStudents must submit a photograph printed in their publication and the cutline. Cutlines need to be at least two sentences in length. Winners will be selected based on only on the written cutline- not on the visual photograph.

• Feature Cutlines• News Cutlines• Sports Cutlines

Yearbook• Academics Copy• Advertising/Community Copy • Group Copy • People Copy • Sports Copy• Student Life Copy • Theme Copy

SIPA offers a mail-in writing contest with more than 25 categories for members. Entries must be published between Dec. 1, 2010 and Nov. 30, 2011. Each individual staff that enters the contest must be a SIPA member. So if the school newspaper is a SIPA member and that same school’s yearbook wants to enter in the mail-in contest, the yearbook must join SIPA as well. Memberships are by publications not by school or adviser. Entries are limited to one student per category, but unlimited per staff and publication. So Jane Doe from the Columbia HS newspaper can only enter the Sports Story category once, but other Columbia HS newspaper staff members can enter the Sports Story category as well. Jane Doe can also enter other categories. Jane just can’t submit two stories in one category. The cost of this contest is $5 per entry or 11 for $50. Entries will not be returned to the school. Awards will be presented during the closing ceremony Sunday morning at the SIPA Convention, and first place winners will be posted online after the convention. Below is a description of each of the categories broken down by publication type: broadcast script writing, literary magazine, newspaper, photo cutlines and yearbook.

Email Leslie Dennis at schopres@mailbox.sc.edu with any questions.

postmark deadline: Dec. 5 • open to all publication types entry form and information available at http://sipa.sc.edu/mailin

Mail-In Contest Categories (for a more detailed description of each category, go online to http://sipa.sc.edu/mailin)

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 • schopres@mailbox.sc.edu

carol naournalism

institute a sipa summer workshop