The Southfield Jay received several national and state honors for journalism this spring.

Receiving national honors from Quill and Scroll were seniors Paige Hall, for bylined opinion writing; Emanne Johnson, for review writing; and Aasif Allen, for photography.

Hall’s award-winning story focused on her thoughts about the Cleveland kidnapper who held three women captive for some 10 years. Hall personally knew the kidnapper because he was her bus driver years ago when she lived in the Cleveland area.

Hall said, “I was shocked because all these students entered (the contest) and I know a lot of them put hard work and time into their stories, and I really did not expect to win.”

Johnson’s award-winning story was a restaurant review of Sweet Asia Cafe, and Allen received his award for his photo illustration of text messaging.

 The Jay staff also received several state honors at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) Conference, held in Lansing on April 22.

The news staff overall received a Gold Award for journalistic excellence in its print edition and a silver award for its online coverage at southfieldtimes.org.

Several staff members received individual state honors:

Hall won first place in Michigan for bylined opinion writing.

Senior Diante Adams won second place in the State for news analysis writing. His award-winning story was about the decline in student conflicts at Southfield High School this school year. Adams, through multiple interviews, discovered that separating the ninth graders into all-boy and all-girl classes resulted in decreased fights among the freshmen and better grades.

Allen received an honorable mention for portrait photography.

Junior De’Enlas Head received an honorable mention for alternative story form writing.

Senior Krista Wilson received an honorable mention for human interest feature writing.

Senior Briana Sparks received an honorable mention for editorial writing.

Southfield Jay Editor-in-Chief Aariston Dawson said, “It was an exciting trip. Peoople new to the newspaper got to win awards, and it was cool.”MIPA received approximately 5,000 contest entries.