In her third year of journalism, senior and co-editor-in-chief Ava Nightingale wins a place on the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) Student Journalist Staff.
“It feels really great to be recognized after all the hard work I put in and it’s just something I’m very passionate about. Design is something that I definitely struggled with in the beginning so the fact that I won an award for it shows how if you put in the time and effort, you really can accomplish anything,” Nightingale said.
From starting out as a staff writer for the “Eagle’s Eye” newspaper to becoming co-editor-in-chief, Nightingale’s hard work was recognized by MIPA. Nightingale is one of two students from Utica Community Schools to earn a place on the Student Journalist Staff. This is a state award with it only being awarded to a select few students.
“Last year I was just figuring out how to work Monarch (design platform) and just getting all the basics down to bring my ideas to life. This year I was able to apply all of that and I figured out so many different design tricks and formats,” Nightingale said.
Nightingale composed her portfolio of her design and story packages, which she submitted to the news design category. She makes everything cohesive by pulling similar elements throughout each piece. Each aspect of her designs were built off specific color schemes and fonts in order to tie everything together.
“I was definitely a lot more confident in my skills this year and I was able to pull off things that I probably wouldn’t have been able to a couple years ago,” Nightingale said.
After three years working alongside her advisor Erica Kincannon on the newspaper and media website, Nightingale’s confidence and leadership skills grew. She attended multiple journalism camps and classes to learn and master the different aspects of planning, running and pulling together a website and multiple newspapers.
“She used this as an opportunity to really absorb everything that we’ve been working on over the last couple years. Being in an editor role last year and being able to capitalize on that this year gave her a lot of opportunities. The confidence piece was also huge. Confidence enough to not only know that she knew what she was doing, but to put it into practice and share and teach that to other people is amazing,” Kincannon said.
Looking to the future, Nightingale plans to attend the College of Charleston in the fall. She intends to major in English with a focus in writing, rhetoric and publication to pursue a career in book publishing.
“I saw a lot of potential; she was able to pick up on things quickly. She had a good writing style and understood any kind of example I was showing. Ava is very coachable, and was able to produce and reproduce it,” Kincannon said. “The thing that really stands out most about Ava is that she doesn’t just settle. She looks at something and she figures out how to get it to that next level without needing to be coached. From an advisor’s perspective, that’s the best thing that can ever happen.”
