This afternoon during fifth hour, Senior Kelsey Bell, the Editor-in-Chief of FHN’s newspaper staff, won the Missouri Student Journalist of the Year award. Bell is the fifth person in the history of FHN to win the award. Bell had to submit a portfolio to be judged in order to win the prestigious award. She will also have to speak at the MIPA journalism conference at Mizzou in April. A statement released by MIPA co-president Matthew Schott had this to say about Bell.

“Kelsey’s designs and graphics examples were the most amazing and professional pieces of scholastic journalism I have viewed in my 30 years of advising. In my years of judging your SJOY entries, I believe this collection was the most impressive and, thus, the most challenging. High school  journalism is alive and well in Missouri,” the statement from the judge said.

Bell was told that she won by FHN principal Darlene Jones and journalism adviser Aaron Manfull. These two knew the news before, but decided to announce it today.

“I was excited when I got the call,” Manfull said. “It was tough to hold the news from her and everyone for a couple days. It was a great honor for Kelsey and everyone in the program.”

Bell has been on the newspaper staff for three years, and she has accrued many awards for her designs. Her most notable award before this was for her design in the “Paranormal” issue of the North Star (January 2011). She received fourth place in the illustration category at the 2011 JEA/NSPA national journalism convention in Minneapolis.

“I was really surprised,” Bell said. “I’m excited because I’ve worked really hard in all the time I’ve been here. I’m mostly glad to be able to share it with such a talented group of people.”

She joins the company of other North alumni, including Audrey Reed (1992), Nora Radley (1996), Kalen Ponche (2003), and Danielle Karstens (2006). Bell is excited to be in company like this.

“It feels like a huge honor because not very many people have ever gotten it,” Bell said. “I like it because those are people that I’ve been able to look up to while I’ve been here and I’m excited to maybe be a role model to someone else in the future.”