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Shield wins Quill and Scroll’s Blue and Gold Award

Sherwood, Melville place in photography categories; MacJ students win a total of 20 awards in the International Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest

March 14, 2020Leave a Comment

2020 Quill and Scroll Gold Key Winners

MALICIOUS MISCONDUCT: Eyes aggressively locked with each other, Ryan (senior Edward Fotinos) holds down Veronica (Austin High junior Katherine Holmes) in Rotten’s third scene. “It’s interesting to play a character like that where you can just kind of really be bad without consequence and truly believe what you’re doing is right,” Fotinos said. “So as much as it is kind of terrible to say, I was a little excited.” Still capture of video by Bella Rothenflue.

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SATURDAY NIGHT’S ALRIGHT FOR FIRE FIGHTING: MAC seniors Ena Nolan and Zach King joined the rest of their LBJ Fire Academy crew in a live propane fire exercise on Saturday Oct. 12 at the Austin Fire Academy. The goal of the practice was for the group of seniors to control the fire enough for a member to get close enough to turn off the tanks gas valve, which would extinguish the flame. Earlier in the day, the juniors in the program, including MAC students Molly Odland, John Hughes, Thomas Lucey, Tex Mitchell and Will Russo, underwent an obstacle course in full gear while trying to conserve air, and stuck around afterwards to watch the seniors and to help replace their air tanks in between rotations. “I don’t even know how to describe it,” Nolan said, who is in her second year in the program. “Watching it [last year] was an ethereal experience, and doing it myself was absolutely amazing, definitely one of the most epic things I’m gonna do in the next couple of years.” Photo by Bella Russo.

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Education should be equitable and accessible across the district, and the shuttering of six elementary schools on the east side overlooks this principle and disadvantages an entire socioeconomic group in Austin. Cartoon by Bella Russo.

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A WORLD OF COLOR: Sophomore Kiera Boehle focuses on the Day of the Dead altar that she was setting up as a part of Art Society volunteer work in the main hall on Thursday, Oct. 24. The altar displayed photographs, trinkets, flowers and other decorations honoring people that have died. “We made it all nice,” Boehle said. “That’s one of the reasons I like Art Society, it contributes to the art community and allows you to experience the world even when you’re in such a small space like a high school.” Photo by Lily Wilson.

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Caleb Melville

EZ-STEND. During the Friday takedown of the Lehman Lobos at Shelton Stadium, the McCallum defense stifled the Lobo O in serving Lehman a shutout. The Lobos may have escaped containment on this second-half play, but the all-out effort shown by sophomore Ez Gunther ultimately won the day for the visiting Knights. The Knight defense held the Lobos to only seven first downs and 16 minutes of possession compared to the Knight offense’s with 12 first downs and 31 minutes of possession. Caption by Grace Nugent. Photo by Caleb Melville.

Gabby Sherwood
Girls basketball team captain Ruby Del Valle reads a prepared statement to Austin ISD associate superintendent of high schools Dr. Craig Shapiro at Tuesday’s meeting in the gym. The meeting included the boys and girls basketball teams, their parents, plus school and district officials. The meeting addressed the recent controversy over the district’s decision to remove the basketball banners from the large gym on Jan. 10. The controversy centered around the hand symbol that a referee makes to indicate that a shot attempt is beyond the 3-point arc. In the symbol, the thumb and index finger form a circle and the remaining three fingers are extended. The hand symbol appeared in both banners. District officials ordered the removal of the banners because the gesture has more recently been associated with white supremacy. In her prepared statement, Del Valle acknowledged that the gesture may cause hurt because of its recent “hateful use” toward minority groups but she argued that well-intentioned people should reclaim the symbol’s original meaning. A search on Wikipedia reveals that the “OK symbol” has multiple other ascribed meanings. It is the ambiguity of the symbol that has prompted groups like the Antidefamation League to urge people to use caution when evaluating the symbol, as one parent pointed out at Tuesday’s meeting. The ADL also notes on its website the worldwide increase of the symbol’s use in 2019 to express white supremacy. Dr. Shapiro began the meeting by expressing regret that the district did not have a set procedure in place to handle the controversy over the banners. He said that a policy has been developed that will prevent similar problems from recurring in the future. He stressed that he did not think that any Mac basketball players meant to convey a discriminatory message with the symbol as it appeared in the banners. Photo by Gabby Sherwood.

Based on its staff performance in the 2020 Quill and Scroll International Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest. the staff of the Shield has earned one of three national Blue and Gold Awards for Visual Excellence.

The Blue and Gold Award is given to the schools win the most awards in three categories: writing, visuals and multimedia. The Shield staff was one of the top three schools in the visual categories of the competition, along with Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis and Lawrence High School in Kansas.

Two MacJ photojournalists senior Gabby Sherwood and junior Caleb Melville earned second place photography awards in the competition. Sherwood won second place in news photography for her Jan. 21 photo of girls varsity basketball team captain Ruby Del Valle speaking at the meeting to discuss the removal of basketball team banners in the large gym.

In explaining their decision to award Sherwood a second-place national award, the judges wrote, “Gabby tackled a tense situation with sensitivity and a keen eye for emotion and body language. The looser framing of this image lets the viewer sense the tension in the room, and the blank gym walls in this case contribute to the overall context.”

Melville won in sports action photography for one of the two pictures he submitted in that category. His winning image, headlined “Ez-stend,” captured sophomore defensive back Ez Guenther fully extended in midair attempting to break up a pass attempt during the varsity football team’s 17-0 victory at Lehman on Sept. 6.

In their assessment of Caleb’s winning image, the judges wrote, “These types of shots are never easy to get, especially at night. Here, the photographer was focusing on the defense as the priority subject, which helped in getting this type of shot. Sometimes prioritizing the subject can make life easier and helps photographers make unique photos.”

In addition to these two second-place awards in visual categories, MacJournalists won nine Gold Keys in visual categories and 18 Gold Keys overall. The complete list of McCallum Gold Key award is listed below.

The overall winner in this competition, Iowa West High School in Iowa City, won the Blue and Gold Award for Staff Excellence. McCallum won the staff excellence award in 2018 and again in 2019.

2020 Quill and Scroll International Writing, Photo and Multimedia Contest

Second Place winners

Caleb Melville, Sports Action Photo, “Ez-stend”

Gabby Sherwood, News Feature Photo, “Girls basketball team captain Ruby Del Valle reads a prepared statement to Austin ISD associate superintendent of high schools Dr. Craig Shapiro”

Gold Key winners

Risa Darlington-Horta, News Feature Photo, “True Colors”

Selena De Jesus, Sports Writing, “Lucky No. 13 is McCallum’s kind-hearted warrior”

Alex Dowd, Feature Writing, “The story of a scout”

Olive Embry, Sports Action Photo, “Can you dig it?”

Ellen Fox, Photo Illustration, “Through the looking glass”

Evelyn Griffin, Opinion Writing, “There has to be a simpler way”

Zoe Hocker, News Magazine Cover Design, “Sweet season”