Inkspot staff sends five to IHSA Journalism State Finals

Five members of the journalism program qualified to compete in the 2023 IHSA Journalism State Finals. Journalism II students Avani Rai (left) and Abby Ruebush (right) return to State for the second straight year. Marielsie Iglesias (second from left) failed to advance past Sectionals last season. Journalism III student Dylan Wehmeyer (second from right) qualified for State in two events in his first Sectional Competition. [Not Pictured: Kellie Chen]

When five Inkspot staff members competed in the IHSA Journalism Sectionals April 1, the student journalists went from reporting the news to making it themselves.
Each of Community’s five individual competitors boasted a top-three finish to secure a spot in the IHSA State Final, where they will compete in a range of events against other top high school journalists on Friday, April 21.
Kellie Chen, Marielsie Iglesias, Dylan Wehmeyer and Avani Rai each earned the title of Sectional Champion.
Rai returns to State to compete in Radio News after earning her second-straight Sectional Title.
The State competition at Heartland Community College will be the first for Chen, Iglesias and Wehmeyer.
Wehmeyer, a three-year member of the Inkspot staff, will compete in Sports and Review Writing, finishing 1st and 3rd in the events, respectively, at Sectionals.
Chen’s mockup of a music lesson ad earned the junior a first-place finish in Advertising.
Iglesias placed first with her original Yearbook Double Page Spread design.
Last season as a sophomore, Iglesias narrowly missed qualifying for State in two events, finishing fourth in each.

Kellie Chen’s winning Advertising submissions responded to prompts provided by contest officials. The IHSA Journalism State Series’ 18 news and yearbook related events required competitors showcase various skills — writing, editing, designing, drawing, photographing — in a 90-minute time frame.
Kellie Chen
Kellie Chen’s winning Advertising submission.
Kellie Chen
Marielsie Iglesias’s 1st place winning Yearbook Double Page Spread submission.
Marielsie Iglesias

Junior Abby Ruebush qualified for State for the second-straight season in Copy Editing, finishing second.
In last season’s Sectional, Ruebush took third in the event.
She repeated those results at the 2022 State Competition, earning bronze in the category as a sophomore.
Despite competing in just half of the Sectional’s 18 events, Community tied for 5th as a team with 42 points.
Chen, Iglesias, and Ruebush each finished fourth in the second event they competed in to contribute to the team score.

Since the Inkspot’s inaugural season of State Series of competition in 2016, the journalism program has advanced qualifiers to the IHSA Journalism State Finals for six consecutive years (not including 2020), qualifying a program-record nine competitors in 2022.
The program finished 5th in the State in 2018, Inkspot’s third year competing.
That season, Katie Fata earned the first and second State Titles in program history, winning 1st in Advertising and Editorial Cartooning.

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Stories published under Inkspot Staff are unattributed to a single reporter because they: have been produced through a collaborative staff effort; individual staff member contribution is not easily distinguishable; and/or the story was disseminated from announcements or press releases.