Hempfield High School teacher, Mr. Turner, recently took some of his students to the Regional Pennsylvania High School Media and Design Competition for IU13. The competition involved celebrating the hard work high school students have put into different art forms, such as animation, logo, and graphic design. This competition occurred on April 9, 2024, when students attended the in-person showcase and award ceremony. Many Hempfield students went home with awards:

Connie Fisk (11th grade) won first place for Logo and Graphic Design and will attend the state-wide competition at Dickinson College on May 21.

Leah Slivovsky (12th grade) won second place for Logo and Graphic Design.

Ella Rineer (11th grade) won third place for Logo and Graphic Design.

Donny Macaulay and Alex Beattie (12th grade) also placed in the animation category.

Not only did many of Turner’s students leave the competition with awards, but he hopes they also left with a deeper understanding of being creative while under the stress of “meeting deadlines, requirements, and design specifications based on the challenges presented to them.” His students put a tremendous amount of effort and work into this competition, so even if a student did not win, they were still able to experience a real-life scenario of being tasked with creating a design and pushing through until it was completed.

This competition required a great amount of work from the students that they completed outside of the event. First, the competing students had to discuss the requirements and complete a planning document. Turner explains that “a planning document is simply a set of drawings that let the student visually brainstorm their ideas before working in any specific application.” This step was crucial before the students turned to whichever application was best suited to their design. All the students then worked together to peer review each others’ designs in hopes of improving themselves and each other.

While many Hempfield students left the Media and Design Competition with victories under their belts, they also returned to school with much more. The students collaborated, worked passionately, and dedicated themselves to this competition, and many saw their hard work pay off.