At the convention the students, including seniors Sierra Fender, Melissa White, Katie Miller, Shannon Miller, Suzanne English, Andrew Murray, Sarah Littauer and Lara Bannister and juniors Graham Galloway, Haley Staton, Austin Woodard and Maggie King, attended a variety of newspaper and yearbook classes and competed in several events.

On Nov. 16 more than 2,000 high school students from across the nation competed for a superior, excellent or honorable mention rating in the national write-off competition. Superior awards were presented to White for yearbook cover/endsheets, Galloway for yearbook sports copy/captions and Fender for graphic design/photo illustration.

Excellent awards were presented to King for yearbook clubs copy/captions,  Katie Miller for review writing and Shannon Miller for news writing.

Honorable mention awards were presented to English for feature writing, Murray for sports writing, Staton for yearbook student life copy/captions and Littauer for yearbook student life photography.

In addition to the individual awards, the Westwind yearbook received a Best in Show Award in the 225-274 page yearbook category and the Wingspan Online received a Best in Show in the small school website publication category.

King, Katie Miller, Murray and Woodard made up the journalism quiz bowl team that earned the third seed and made it to the quarterfinals. The quiz bowl championship trophy went to Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Penn.

“Quiz bowl was a good experience, and as a team with two members new to quiz bowl I think we did well,” King said. “In the future we will study more and hopefully we’ll win next year.”

While in Boston the students visited Harvard University, took a Freedom Tour and visited the Boston Marathon bombing site.

“Boston was a great experience,” King said. “Not only did I learn a lot about journalism, but I got to travel to a place I had never been before.”

By Katie Miller

“You have to be a people person to work at McDonald’s,” sophomore Kyla Gibson said.  “You have to be very reasonable with customers, and you don’t want to have a short temper. This is my first job, and sometimes it can be hard working with people. It’s interesting.”

Recently, a number of new jobs have become available for students in the Mills River area, including at the new Bojangle’s on Airport Road and the new McDonald’s on Highway 25. The McDonald’s has 62 crewmembers, many of them students.

A new Ingles will be opening on Highway 280 sometime in April, creating even more job opportunities.

“I like seeing teenage employees say ‘Yes I got a job.’ The excitement is great, and I like giving them an opportunity to prove themselves,” Tony Rowland, restaurant manager for McDonald’s, said. “I think we’ve done really well with the high school students that have come on board in our store.”

Teenage employees can do most of the jobs done by full-time workers, which increases the experience of the students and teaches them skills to apply to other situations.

“Our teenage employees can do pretty much anything. There are certain things that they can’t handle because of the laws of the state, but they can do other jobs, like waiting on customers and taking care of sweeping and mopping,” Rowland said. “They gain good training and good development with McDonald’s that they can take to any job.”

High school employees work part-time, but stores who employ them must be flexible with the hours they work, especially during the school year. Gibson usually works every other day from 4 to 9 p.m. If a problem with school arises, she can cut down on her hours.

“I talk to their parents and try to build a relationship with them because school is important,” Rowland said. “If there’s an issue with school, their grades are slipping or they’re not able to do their homework, I’ve cut people back to where they only work Saturdays and Sundays.”

Sophomore Ashley Smith started working at McDonald’s in September.

“There are a lot of people there that I know, so it’s nice to hang out with friends and work at the same time,” Smith said. “I have a job so that I can save up to get a car. I like working so that I can get my own money, and I don’t have to ask my dad for money.”

The Mills River Ingles is scheduled to open in April. Applications for jobs are available online at www.ingles-markets.com/careers. Junior Kevin Hayes started working at the Fletcher Ingles last summer, and he said that he enjoys his job there.

“Ingles was the first job that I applied to, and I liked it because a lot of my friends worked there and it was close to my house. My job can be really fun sometimes because I work with a lot of my friends,” Hayes said. “I need money for gas and car insurance because I have a car, and this job is easy, which is nice. Sometimes my mom will text me with a couple of things to get before I leave.”

According to Mike Elliott, training director for Ingles, the Mills River Ingles will offer approximately 175 to 200 jobs.  Roughly 50 to 60 of those jobs will be available to teenagers.

“First and most importantly, we will provide a wonderful place for the citizens of the area to shop and save. We pride ourselves in our clean, bright, open stores and friendly helpful associates, who are also members of the community,” Elliott said. “Additionally, our company also pays taxes to the local community, which helps fund other community programs. We’ve always been very proud to be a responsible community citizen.”

Although teenagers do have less experience and flexibility with work schedules, their energy is exciting, Elliott said.

“Since it is normally the first job many teenagers will have, there is a fresh energy and excitement associated with a high school student in the workplace,” he said. “There is normally a sense of discipline as well since a student needs to be disciplined to work and take care of school responsibilities.”

Anna Yarbrough, Asst. Feature Editor and Shannon Miller, Asst. Feature Editor