The FSPA convention was held at the Wyndham Resort in Orlando, and allowed students to participate in other contests, workshops, and a banquet. West Shore won an Honorable mention in the Newspaper Team Contest, and first place in the Yearbook Team Contest.

The Florida Scholastic Press Association hosts an annual contest and convention for high schoolers who participate in their school’s publications programs, like newspaper, yearbook, videography, and Literary Magazine.

The contest has three rankings of awards are Honorable Mention, Excellent, and All-Florida. Roughly 20 percent of participants do not earn awards in the FSPA’s digital contest. West Shore competed in the digital contest, winning ten Honorable Mentions, nine Excellents, and nine All-Florida awards. Juniors Deanna Ebling, Molly Minta, Erin Sheridan, Evy Guerra, Joey Crown,  Shilo Toland, and seniors Jessica Blanco and Sam Lack received Honorable Mentions. Juniors Katie Garwood, Molly Minta, Joey Crown, Jessica Whaley, Naeem Mottagh, Jonathan Wakim, Max Girard and seniors Andrew Lim, Sam Lack, and Lindsay Gorham earned Excellents. Seniors Andrew Lim and Valerie Ferretti, and juniors Katie Garwood, Molly Minta, Savannah Wheat, Jessica Whaley, Kha Duong, and Emily Dubec-Hunter achieved All-Florida awards.

Minta said she was pleasantly surprised that she did well in the contest.

“I was happy that I won awards, I wasn’t expecting to,” Minta said. “It’s nice to recognized for the work you do.”

Sheridan said that her team, Team Newspaper, was able to overcome obstacles at the conference’s On The Spot competitions.

“I thought it was stressful because my team didn’t even have InDesign downloaded on our computers,” Sheridan said. “But I was happy when we won fourth place.”