On May 30, the staff attended the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) spring awards conference. This year, the paper received nine individual awards, a Spartan award for online newspaper, and a silver award for the print edition.

“I am so proud of my staff,” said newspaper adviser Chad Sanders. “This is the most awards we’ve ever taken home. These guys rock.”

The awards ceremony, held at the Lansing Center, was attended by thousands of middle and high school students from across the state. 84 schools entered in 35 categories that ranged from writing and design to photography and video. In the individual races, 3,226 students were entered.

The nine awards include a First Place for junior Ciara Carter in the Opinion Page Spread category.

“When they called my name, I didn’t really realize it at first,” said Carter. “Then I looked over and Mr. Sanders was giving me an excited thumbs-up, and I knew something had happened.”

The surprise of the conference was the Spartan Award for the online newspaper, myvikingvoice.com. The site was created in December, and has been gaining viewers ever since. A Spartan is the association’s highest honor for an online paper; only two other schools in the state took home a Spartan for online newspapers.

“The Web is the future of journalism,” said Sanders. “It allows us to publish immediately, not have to wait for the next issue to cover a story.”

Sanders added that next year, he would like to see myvikingvoice.com add weekly updates, and daily sports scores.