National Newsmagazine Nominations Generate Excitement

Michelle Birch, Editor-in-Chief

September 15, 2015

Communications junior Julia Horneck is a finalist in the “Design of the Year,” specifically, “newsmagazine cover” category of the NSPA 2015 competition. Horneck’s photo was the 2014-15 Issue 3 cover of The Muse to accompany the cover story about students with chronic illnesses. The results will be released at the convention in Orlando on Nov. 12-15.

Communications senior Starr Courakos received the nomination for "Picture of the Year" in the specific category, "environmental portrait" on Sept. 11. Courakos rode the bus for almost two hours with Dreyfoos alumna Diana Calderon. The accompanying story highlighted the great lengths Diana traveled to get to school everyday. — Photo by: Michelle Birch
Communications senior Starr Courakos received the nomination for “Picture of the Year” in the specific category, “environmental portrait” on Sept. 11. Courakos rode the bus for almost two hours with Dreyfoos alumna Diana Calderon. The accompanying story highlighted the great lengths Calderon traveled to get to school everyday.

Communications junior Julia Horneck and communications senior Starr Courakos are finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) 2015 contest. Their nominations were announced on Sept. 11 and yielded excitement from the communications department.

Courakos has been nominated for the “Picture of the Year” award, specifically for “environmental portrait.” The nominated photo is in Issue 5 of The Muse that accompanied her story, “The Last Stop,” about Dreyfoos alumna Diana Calderon who rode the bus for almost two hours every day to get to school.

“It was such an honor to be nominated for my photo, we work so hard in the Muse and it’s great to see our work recognized nationally,” Courakos said.

Horneck’s nomination is in the “Design of the Year” category, specifically “newsmagazine cover,” for her Issue 3 cover photo of vocal sophomore Hailey Kennedy. Kennedy is featured wearing the mask she wore to school for the majority of her freshman year, due to her recovery from Acute Myeloid Leukemia which she was diagnosed with in January of 2013.

Due to a submission error the photo of Kennedy was originally attributed to communications senior Rowan Bennetti. This error is in the process of being corrected; the photo was taken by Horneck.

“It’s an honor in itself for my work to have even been merely submitted in the first place, and to now think that I’m a nominee for an award is completely surreal,” Horneck said. “Photography has always been something I’ve turned to as a hobby, so it’s quite incredible to see how far it has propelled me.”

The final results of the competition will be released at the NSPA convention on Nov. 12-15.

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About the Contributor

Michelle Birch, Editor-In-Chief

Communications senior Michelle Birch is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Muse. She enjoys writing and loves contributing to the production of the publication as much as possible. She is always interested in helping the staff whenever she can. Along with journalism, Birch finds interest in the film aspect of communications. Birch spends her time out of school either taking drives to the beach, preparing for college applications or kickboxing at her local boxing club. Over the summer Birch had the opportunity to intern at a local publishing firm, which gave her exciting ideas to bring to The Muse. Her dream is to become the Editor-in-Chief of a high profile magazine and plans to make this happen throughout her college career and later years of life. Whether or not her plans change, Birch hopes to be successful wherever she may end up.