Pius X’s Appleget Wins Gold at State Journalism Championship
On May 12, 2014 Pius X Sophomore Olivia Appleget made school history by becoming Pius X’s first ever gold medal winner at the NSAA State Journalism Championship held at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Appleget, daughter of Carin and Andrew Appleget of St. Peter Parish, earned first prize, all-class in the News Writing category.
Appleget, along with Pius X senior Kathryn Budell (Column Writing) qualified to participate in the day-long competition in Journalism. Three of their classmates – seniors Lawrence Nguyen and Brittany Pollock, and junior Kally Werning – represented the Pius X Yearbook staff in the category of Yearbook Theme Development after having placed 1st in the Class A2 preliminary. In order to qualify for state, students from all over Nebraska submit entries in a variety of categories, and the champion in each class, as well as the next seven best entries, advance to compete in the state championship.
“The whole experience was really new and exciting,” Appleget says. “I was not really that nervous because I didn’t really know what I was getting into.” During the competition, she received a sheet of paper listing quotes from a variety of sources, and was given an hour to compose a hard news story based on the content.
“When we were sitting at the award ceremony, and they announced the top six, I heard 6th through 4th place names announced and thought, ‘Oh, well, we’ll try again next year,’” Appleget recalls. She then heard her name announced for the first place prize. “I said: ‘Oh, wow!’ But it didn’t really sink in until later when Mrs. (Sandra) Sullivan told me that I had made school history,” she reflects.
This is the first year Appleget has studied Journalism under teacher Nolan DeWispelare, who recently was named the newest Diamond Coach by the National Speech & Debate Association in Ripon, Wis. “I’ve always been interested in creative writing – writing little stories here and there,” Appleget notes. “But I struggled a bit with research, so I challenged myself to take journalism class so that I could better myself as a writer.” She then discovered that she really enjoyed the craft. “After a while, I really started to love interviewing people, writing stories and always being in the know,” she says with a smile.
Applegate, a National Honor Society student, is a member of the Pius X swim team and school’s Passport to Adventure club that will be going on a mission trip to Peru in the summer of 2015.
