For the Reporter

Auburn students and two teachers – Auburn High’s Tom Kaup and Auburn Mountainview’s Stephanie Keagle – took top awards at the Washington Journalism Education Association’s Spring Conference on March 15 at Shorewood High School.

Kaup was named WJEA Adviser of the Year and will represent Washington in the national contest.

Keagle won the experienced adviser scholarship, which gives her $750 to spend on workshops and other needs.

Entries from 233 students were judged in a variety of categories.

The student winners from Auburn were:

Cameron Fairchild, Auburn Riverside (superior in review writing. Only 19 of the 233 students entered in contests earned the rating); Alex Vasquez, Auburn Riverside (excellent in editorial writing); Mackenzie Brown, Auburn Riverside (excellent in feature writing); Justina Brown, Auburn High (honorable mention in copy editing/headline writing); Maddie Nassiran, Auburn Riverside (honorable mention in copy editing/headline writing); Sara Koenig, Auburn Riverside (honorable mention in newspaper/newsmagazine sports photos); Megan Carver, Auburn High (honorable mention in yearbook feature photo); and Lisa Cano, Auburn High (honorable mention in yearbook sports photo).

Elsewhere

Auburn Riverside High School sent 27 students to the SkillsUSA regional leadership and skills competitions in March. They competed in nine different categories and won 14 medals in the various categories. Medal results are: basic electronics, Brandon Hall (gold); Alex McKay (silver); Samuel Higdon (bronze); cabinet making, Adam Domenowske (gold); computer maintenance: Brandon Hall (silver); electronics technology, Ryan Floth (gold); TJ Snyder (silver); Pinder Singh (bronze); extemporaneous speech, Tristan Naranjo (gold); TJ Snyder (bronze); job interview, Baldeep Kang (gold); Parker Johnson (bronze); job skills demo, Tristan Naranjo (gold); related technical math, David Salazar (silver). Auburn Riverside qualified 23 students for the state competitions on April 17-19 at Bates and Clover Park Technical Colleges in Tacoma. …

Two business enterprises at Auburn Riverside achieved gold level certification in the annual DECA evaluation. They were among 221 school-based enterprises in the country to achieve the designation and will be recognized at DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Atlanta next month. The students who worked on the certification were: Brady Cummings, Calli Millang and Cole Lindell for the Ravens Nest DECA Store; and Parker Johnson, Caprice Gauthier and Paloma Langone for the Raven Hoop Concessions. …

Auburn’s Timothy S. Kosaka recently was inducted into the Alpha Chi Beta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at Green River Community College.

Kosaka, a business major, is the son of Mark and Kate Kosaka of Auburn.

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, headquartered in Jackson, Miss., is the largest honor society in American higher education with 1,280 chapters on college campuses throughout the U.S., Canada and other countries.