One Taylorville High School student took second place in an non-traditional IHSA state contest this past weekend. Junior Jessica Parsons took second place in the Yearbook Layout and Yearbook Caption Writing categories at the IHSA State Journalism Competition held at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Overall, eight Taylorville High journalism students qualified for the state competition in Charleston out of ten students that originally went to sectionals at SIU-Carbondale.

Parsons says she had some nerves going into the state contest because she was competing in new categories this year.

Parsons says she doesn’t know if she will pursue a journalism education or career after college, but that if she does she would look to go more into broadcast journalism than traditional journalism.

Taylorville High School journalism teacher Steve Steele says the students are training for these contests in all the journalism work they do at the school.

Steele says the journalism competitions are great for the students so they can meet other students interested in journalism from other high schools in the state.