By: Kayla Kuppertz Editor-in-Chief

Recently, the Eisenhower Middle High School Journalism Club was awarded $1,000 for their efforts in submitting a video to Ford’s “Go Further” video contest. The Eisenhower group, which was chosen as runner-up for the $5,000 grand prize, competed against other students and organizations nationwide, creating a two minute video highlighting how their organization goes further for their community. The Journalism Club officers, President Grant Venman, Vice President Alexandra Hagberg, Co-Treasurers Mitchyl Hedman and Kayla Kuppertz, and Secretary Allie Schutt, filmed, starred in, edited, and produced the short video independently in class. In the video, they interviewed the club’s adviser, Ms. Crystal Howe, showed clips and pictures of journalism’s involvement in the school community, and featured the officers and their roles in the group.

From filming and broadcasting Eisenhower’s weekly news program to writing and editing articles for the online newspaper, squirenews.com, the group gets very involved in the school community and is always reaching out to its members to share the latest news. Fundraisers like Mr. EHS and the annual talent show are organized and run by the club as well, with journalism students hosting, producing, and judging the events. This community involvement is exactly what was featured in the video submitted to Ford, as well as ideas for how the prize money would be spent. The club plans to use some of the prize money to purchase new technology for student use. Plans are also being made to utilize a portion of the money to fund educational trips for the group.

Earlier in the year, the high school’s Ike Pride group hosted a Drive for Your School event sponsored by Ford. This event served as a segway to the video contest, which was brought to the group’s attention by local Ford representatives and Mr. Todd Venman.

Watch the video here: