Feb. 26, 2012 – The culminating activity of our annual Capitol Hill Press Conference in an on-the-spot writing contest, with participants usually working in teams of two for 90 minutes to produce a news story on the event.
This year, due to one of the scheduled speakers being unable to attend due to legislation on the state senate floor, the contest prompt became: Write a news feature for an audience of Colorado high school journalists who were unable to attend our Feb. 10 event, and focus on what the experience was like and the kinds of things participants learned.
A total of 67 students from 19 schools participated in CHPC, and there were also 19 advisers in attendance. Those attendance numbers were among the all-time best for this event, which began in 1982. It was originally called “Governor’s Day Press Conference,” though the tradition of having the governor answer questions for 45 minutes was broken in the late 1990s — hence the name change. Speaker of the House Frank McNulty and Senate President Brandon Shaffer were our scheduled participants, for the second time.
Twenty-eight news features were submitted after the 90 minutes were up. The news features were judged by an out-of-state professional.
There were also four teams of video broadcast reporters, and they had until the following Wednesday to send the links to their 3-minute maximum reports to CHSPA. Broadcast students were encouraged to conduct interviews, gather footage in and around the Capitol, etc., during the 90 minutes. They then did their editing back at school. Two teams submitted their work, and they were judged by a professional journalist.
News Feature Writing
1st place
Legend HS – Tyffani Hoff & McKenna Weech
2nd place
Arapahoe HS – Emerald O’Brien & Madi Bates
3rd place
Mountain Vista HS – Macy Morgan & Mike Collins
Honorable mentions:
Valor Christian HS – Chase Hoven & Elisabeth Armstrong
Legacy HS – Sydney Kochevar, Ashley Montoya & Hannah Carpenter
Rock Canyon HS – Michael Shapiro & Kaitlin Jarrell
The judge wrote: The winning entries had a central theme, rather than just recounting a series of events. They started with a lede that drew in the reader, and stressed one or two main events that the intended audience (other high school journalists) would be likely to find interesting or learn from.
Video programs
1st place
Rocky Mountain HS – Alex Creighton & Lauren Binder
