On April 26, IHSA held its 18th annual high school journalism state competition. High school journalists across Illinois first competed in the sectionals event on April 6, hoping to advance to the state finals later that month.

Three students from the St.Charles East X-ray team advanced from sectionals to the state competition to compete against high schools state-wide. Sophomore Lauren Voigt competed in News Writing, junior Yzabelle de Luna in Yearbook Double- Page Layout and Newspaper Design and senior Nishi Patel competed in Copy Editing.

On April 26, the X-ray state qualifiers arrived in Normal, Illinois, at Heartland Community College, where the competition was being held.

Voigt said her favorite memory at State was “…not even the competition, [but] seeing another person [de Luna] in the group win something. I also enjoyed when we were playing Monopoly in the hotel room.”
She went on to say, “I have never been to state before and I was really surprised. I just did my best.”

Patel recalled her first few thoughts about advancing to the State event. “I was super shocked. I expected myself to go to State for Headline Writing, not Copy Editing,” she said. “I’ve never really competed for Copy Editing before. It was a super nice surprise because it was my last year competing in the event.”

De Luna also revisited her reaction to qualifying for state for both Yearbook Double-Page Layout and Newspaper Design, saying, “It was both exciting and stressful. […] It was fun to be around the staff [because]we were more connected this year.”

Within the seven sectionals, there were twenty competitors that advanced in Yearbook Double-Page Layout and Newspaper Design. STCE’s own Yzabelle de Luna placed fifth inYearbook Double-Page Layout and sixth in Newspaper Design.

The St. Charles East X-ray continues to advance to the state competition and it is always impressive to see what the team is capable of.