The yearbook and newspaper would look very different each year without photos. Though these photos hold a key spot in these publications, they are not the only platform that the photos are recognized. Senior Rachel Horsley experienced this as she just recently got first place in a Kansas Scholastic Press Association, KSPA, portrait contest. KSPA is a non-profit made up of students and teachers with contests throughout the year in all different journalism aspects. 

While Horsley has participated before, this was her first time winning first.

“I won second place and stuff before but this was my first time winning first place in one of the sections and it was also my first time submitting a portrait photo,” Horsley said.

The photo Horsley submitted showed a student at orchestra that she didn’t even expect to win.

“It was just like a very random shot that I didn’t expect to actually look good. I pulled it up on my computer and was editing it and T. Love saw it over my shoulder and I was like, ‘Ooh, that’s good. We need to submit that,’” Horsley said.

Winning this contest has been on Horsley’s bucket list so it was very exciting for her to hear that she had won.

“It kind of motivates me to just keep going because now I’m like, ‘oh, I want to win first place all the time.’ It’s nice. It’s a good feeling. And I was looking into some classes for photography in college and now I’m like, yeah, I definitely want to keep pursuing it a little bit longer.”