On October 29th the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association hosted their fall awards ceremony to celebrate the achievements of student run yearbook and literary magazine publications. The event was held online due to Covid-19 concerns, and the video was posted to the YouTube channel of MSPA. It began with various video clips from the Best of Show category (formerly the carry in category) and included some students TikToks for fun. 

Ramsey knew what he wanted to be at 8 years old, because his parents always consumed media so he always knew what was going on in the world. His dad encouraged his career aspirations, telling him that he would be the best editorial cartoonist if he worked for it. His talk was about how to handle adversity in pursuit of dreams by telling an anecdote about water skiing. Ramsey’s dad relentlessly encouraged him to get up over the water, even after his son crashed into a submerged log. That same paternal motivation carried over to Ramsey’s fight against cancer, with his dad telling him to think of the experience that he beat cancer, instead of contracted cancer.

The primary theme of Ramsey’s speech was resilience, acknowledging that people would be watching the event at home or social distancing at school, as opposed to gathered in an auditorium together at the USM campus, where recent MSPA fall conventions have been held. Ramsey talked about the importance of gathering information on current times, comparing writers and reporters to “frontline workers”.

At the end of the virtual conference, awards were presented in the fall Best of Mississippi contest, which includes literary magazines and yearbooks (newspapers and broadcast programs are honored at the spring convention). 

Prep’s own Précis, Mindprints, and Earthwinds did well, being nominated for and winning several awards in both publications and individual categories. Dramatic music played as the slides showed five finalists, and the one winner among them. The awards Prep publications won and were nominated for are:

Literary Magazine Awards 

• Ms. Kimberly Reedy, advisor of year finalist
• Katherine Cole was a finalist for best flash fiction 
• Chase Thompson, Chloe Reynolds, Megan Tang were finalists for best spread design, and Chloe Reynolds won
• Earthwinds and Mindprints were both finalists for best cover design 
• Earthwinds and Mindprints were both finalists for best layout and design, and Earthwinds won 
• Mindprints was a finalist for continuity of theme
• Earthwinds was a finalist for best quality of writing
• Earthwinds won best quality of visuals
• Earthwinds was a finalist for best literary magazine

Yearbook Awards 

• Mallory Reedy was a finalist for best academic photo, best sports photo
• Havens Smith was a finalist for best feature writing/reporting
• Summer Wheat and Julia Sumrall were finalists for best sports writing/reporting
• Sam Legget won best student life spread 
• Katheryn Weir and Paige Case nominated for best sports spread 
• Michelle Dashbach was a finalist twice for best feature spread
• Précis was a finalist for best photography and theme development 
• Précis won best cover design
• Précis was a finalist for best yearbook

Précis adviser Ms. Anna Griffin said she was “over the moon excited” because her students had worked so hard to make the yearbook better, and Dr. Paul Smith, the adviser for Earthwinds was pleased with the results as well. 

A complete list of winners can be found at the MSPA website.