After a year filled with writing, brainstorming and holiday celebrations, Edmond Memorial High School’s online newspaper, the Ruff Draft, has finished the year out strong. The staff traveled to the University of Oklahoma on Mon., April 11 for informational sessions and an awards ceremony hosted by Oklahoma Scholastic Media, with the Ruff Draft receiving over 50 total awards.

For the beginning half of the day, the staff attended conferences, including captioning, media law, social media and other classes meant to improve and add nuance to stories.

The most notable of the awards they earned is the All-Oklahoman Award, which recognizes the Ruff Draft’s overall prestigious writing and design. In addition to the online paper winning All-Oklahoman and a ranking of “Highest Honors,” the individual writers brought back many impressive awards. Not only were there many Honorable mentions, third overalls and second overalls, Olivia Lane, Makinzy Todd, Adeline Gruen, Jamison Joyce and Abby Love all received first place on at least one article. Lane even won two first places and Gruen won three first places.

This year the newspaper went through multiple changes as they became independent from the other Edmond high schools, and shifted from having Senior English teacher Christy Nieves as the advisor to Sophomore English teacher Jaqueline Hirlinger. Nieves still teaches the Intro to Journalism class, and many of those students will be joining the Ruff Draft staff next year. While the staff had much to adapt to, they succeeded, and Hirlinger led them to an amazing and successful year.

Contact Kelsi Seltenreich at [email protected]