Timer starts. Everyone flips open their competition packets and starts reading. The sound of pencils on paper and keyboards typing fill the room until the very last minute. After time is called, the hardest part happens: waiting for results.
The two to three hours of grading, ended with good news for two journalism students and the social studies team. After hearing their names called at the district meet, they are competing in their events on April 25 at Baylor University in Waco.
“For district, I competed in editorial and feature writing,” junior Isabella Zavala said. “I got first place for Editorial, so I get to join everyone in Waco. Going to regionals gives me something to look forward to. Before this school year, I wasn’t really involved in anything extracurricular and to know that I’m good at something where I could go to regionals is very inspirational for myself.”
The other journalism contestant, senior Victoria Medina, competed in not just one, not two, but five journalism events during the UIL season; she qualifies for regionals in news writing, feature writing and headline writing.
“To prepare myself for my events, I always look over previous criticism of past stories I’ve written and talk to Ms. Meachen beforehand to calm my nerves,” Medina said. “I participated in five events all year for journalism and competed for three events in district. This really feels like a full circle moment because I think I’m inspiring the underclass and my freshman year I used to look up to all the seniors who got All State Journalism staff too.”
One of the students from the social studies team took on UIL journalism too, even though she’s going to regionals for social studies.
“I thought that since I liked copy editing and journalism, I could compete in UIL,” sophomore Sarah Adams said. “This year, I had no clue UIL social studies was a thing until Mr. Robinson mentioned it to me. He convinced me to attend one of the meetings after talking more about what they do and how to compete. After taking my first test, I found I was pretty good at it and decided to keep competing.”
This year was the first time in a while that the UIL Social Studies team all made it to regionals together. They’ve worked year-long just to get where they are today. They beat a very strong team from Conroe High School by one point to take the team championship at district.
“We practice by reading the book multiple times over and looking over primary sources for the subject of this year’s competition,” junior Natalie Mayronne said. “We also memorize events along with where they go on the timeline so we can explain it in our own words, potentially using it during competitions. I think my team is well prepared for regionals and I’m very proud of them.”
Social studies coach Michael Robinson claims to have never seen such dedication when it comes to the UIL team.
“Without a doubt the best part is the dedication the team has, and their commitment to doing well,” Robinson said. “Everyone on the team has gone above and beyond to not only learn the material, but truly understand it. The greatest thing in my profession is when students come together with a common goal and a commitment to excel, this team has gone above and beyond in that endeavor. I am looking forward to our students getting to show off their hard work.”
