By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

Lake Orion High School’s 2020 Yearbook class was recently awarded yet another Spartan Award from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association. LOHS received an impressive score of 940 out of 1,000.

While the program is not foreign to receiving this award, after the challenges that COVID-19 brought to the end of the 2019-2020 school year, receiving the Spartan award was an especially momentous honor.

In 2002, LOHS was inducted into the MIPA Hall of Fame. This was the first year the MIPA opened its Hall of Fame.

In order to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, the program must have been awarded a Spartan Award nine times out of the last ten years, said Spencer Hazel, Editor in Chief of the 2020 yearbook. Hazel worked as Editor in Chief alongside Hannah Michilak.

Under the guidance of Stephanie Orth for the last 12 years, the program has won ten Spartan Awards.

MIPA’s procedure for judging requires yearbooks, newspapers, broadcast video production, news magazines and news websites are judged by an out-of-state judge who evaluates the student media against the standards provided by MIPA.

“When an out-of-state judge recognizes that your staff produced an exemplary yearbook that documents a school year accurately, and we win a commendation for coverage, it makes all the late nights and stress worth it,” Orth said. “The student yearbook staff exceeds my expectations year after year. The target to win awards is always moving, changing as print journalism changes. The staff is able to adapt to those changes and raise the bar time and again.”

With Lake Orion’s program continuously proving to be a dominant force in this area, it has fostered an air of confidence among Yearbook staff that is not unwarranted.

“I specifically remember being interviewed by LO-AM in the winter about the 2019-2020 yearbook and whether or not I believed we would win a Spartan, to which I confidently responded that we would. I was pleased to receive notice from Mrs. Orth and current Yearbook staff members that my prediction was not cocky, but in fact self-fulfilling,” Hazel said.

One thing that makes the 2020 Yearbook — titled “Clearly Yours” — stand out is its plexiglass cover, something Orth had been talking about for years prior, as well as its color scheme.

“The plexiglass cover was obviously a hit. Mrs. Orth has said for years that she would like to include a plexiglass cover, and it’s exciting that we were finally able to include one. It’s also funny that in the era of COVID-19, we had a plexiglass cover,” said Hazel. “I also think that the design in this book was spectacular; our section editors last year were naturals. I think the color scheme this year was very appealing to the eye. Non-Yearbook students don’t pick up on this, but color plays a huge role in the initial impression of a spread, so having an organized rotation and method of color usage certainly played a role.”

On top of receiving a Spartan, the Yearbook staff also won a commendation for coverage.

“I was particularly honored that our book received a commendation for coverage since my biggest role last year was planning the weekly coverage, a role that oftentimes left me stressed and turned my entire 90 minutes of class into contingency planning,” Hazel said. “I hope everyone who was part of last year’s staff feels the same pride and joy that I do that our piece of history, our document of that entire school year, has been bestowed with the highest honor that our state press association has to offer.”