For the last three years, HHS senior Sydney Laput has been one of the journalism program’s shining stars. She is the photo editor for both the Voice student newsmagazine and Harmony, the HHS yearbook.
If you’ve been to a sporting event, a play, or just walking the halls at the high school, you probably have seen Sydney carrying her camera shooting photos.
And while her advisers Lauren Teeter and Dennis Brown and fellow staff members respect the hours she spends and the quality of the work that she does, in March Laput found out that her work garnered national attention as well.
Two of her portrait photos won awards from Quill and Scroll, an international journalism honor society based at the University of Iowa.
The first, a photo of softball player Reese Hunkins, took second place in the Portrait Photo category.
But the second photo she entered in the category, a portrait of cosplayers Avi Schwank and Lexi Egan, won the Sweepstakes Award, given to the best portrait in the contest.
Laput was thrilled to hear the news.
“I was very shocked at winning, not just second place, but the sweepstakes award as well for profile portrait,” Laput said. “I never thought I would be able to make this kind of achievement, and I personally want to give it to The Voice and Harmony Yearbook in aiding me to be where I am right now.”
Laput is only the fourth member of the Voice staff to win a Quill and Scroll Sweepstakes award since 2011.
“I could not be prouder of Sydney for all the work she’s done for the Voice and Harmony over the past three years,” Voice adviser Dennis Brown said. “For her, it’s not about just getting the photos. It’s about making them the best they can be. She truly is an artist with a camera.”
Laput is very thankful for her time on the HHS publications’ staffs.
“For the past three years, they have been able to give me the opportunity to do something I love within this school, and also in creating so many memories in the PUBS program,” Laput said. “So I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that I have worked with in newspaper and yearbook in leading up to winning the sweepstakes award and second place. You all shaped my high school career until the end.”
