The Central Trend is proud to announce 16 winners and honorable mentions for the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) annual awards. We thank our viewers, who make it possible for us to continue to publish amazing stories every day and contribute to record-breaking site views every year. Without you, none of these awards would have been possible for the talent we hold across the board on The Central Trend staff. Below are highlighted interviews with second and third placeholders on our site; we congratulate them on their accomplishments as they continue to turn out award-winning stories daily.

Name: Natalie Mix

Position on staff: Editor in Chief

Award: Second Place, Personal Narrative—This moment—broken teacups and butterfly wings

1. What inspired you to write this story?

“My car crash. I was quarantined in my bedroom and I didn’t have anything else to do, [so] I decided to start writing and then I ended up writing about my car crash. I wanted to write about how the last couple weeks [had] messed with me and [about] how I wasn’t doing well, so I was able to find some hope in it.”

2. What makes this piece special?

“It was representative of such a large event in my life, and because it was kind of the moment that I realized I had been doing the right things to slow down. It was a part of a column series about slowing down so it helped me to see the ways I had been doing that, reflect on what was important to me, and it’s overall very symbolic of this whole series.”

3. Did you run into any difficulties writing this story?

“I don’t think so; I wrote it pretty much all in one sitting. I remember re-writing parts of it and not loving it, but once I went back and re-wrote them, I really liked it.”

Name: Avery Jordan

Position on staff: Editor in Chief

Award: Second Place, Human Interest Feature—The Andersons of FHC balance comradery and chaos upon their last name

1. What inspired you to write this story?

“I’ve had two out of the four Anderson teachers throughout my high school experience, so when one of my fellow staff writers posed this idea to me—to interview all of the Anderson teachers—I thought it sounded like fun to get to know all four of them and share that knowledge with The Central Trend readers.”

2. What makes this piece special?

“This story is special because it is something aside from the standard informative feature. It is unique and allowed for more creativity within the writing process. It is a really cool read because it shows the ins and outs of their last names and how their relationships have grown because of the one thing they all have in common.”

3. Did you run into any difficulties writing this story?

“The only difficulty I had was oftentimes quoting which Anderson said what—even I would get confused.”

“It was pretty smooth; I’m not the biggest interview-oriented story [writer], so writing it was just a little bit difficult because of that, but it was overall a pretty easy story to write.”

Name: Kiera Kemppainen

Position on staff: Social Media Manager

Award: Third Place, Human Interest Feature—The floors of FHC are scuffed with the path of self-expression

1. What inspired you to write this story?

“It was on the document for feature ideas, and I thought it was really interesting because I see a lot of people with shoes that I haven’t seen before. It’s a way of self-expression, so I thought it would be really interesting to hear from people around the school on how they expressed themselves through shoes.”

2. What makes this piece special?

“I think everyone’s attachment to their shoes and the passion that you could feel through their quotes. Shoes really are a way [to display] self-expression, and having people just talk about shoes and ordering them online or the girls that paint shoes themselves is a way to see how it fits with them.”

3. Did you run into any difficulties writing this story?

“I didn’t have too many difficulties, but some of my quotes weren’t the greatest so I was fishing for deeper ones. Overall, it was a really good story to write just because people were so passionate about it.”