This week's Portage Life in the Spotlight is Portage High School student Haley Cnarich. Cnarich recently competing for an award and is being offered an amazing opportunity as a student journalist.
Cnarich is a staff member of the Portage High School yearbook, the Legend. She recently competed in a contest where she submitted some of her best pictures to be judged and she came over with third place.
The contest was for the Indiana High School Press Association Sports Contest Award. The way the contest worked was that three articles or pictures, all having to do with sports, were to be sent in per person to be judged. Cnarich just sent in pictures.
The picures or articles were emailed in to the association. Then 4 articles and 4 pictures were chosen out of all those submitted. Judges then picked the best pictures or articles submitted and gave those writer and photographers an amazing opportunity. They were able to choose to either cover the Indy 500 or to go to a Pacer's practice and cover that event.
Cnarich took third place and decided to pick the Pacer's practice. However, Cnarich does not know the date of the Pacer's practice she'll be covering.
"Winning this means that people really like my photography and that I'm good at it," Cnarich said.
According to Legend Adviser Melissa Deavers-Lowie, she feels that Cnarich submitting her photographs to the contest was a great decision.
"It was something that I made available to all my students if they wanted to enter it and I knew how much she loved sports photography," Deavers-Lowie said. "I kind of encouraged her to do it and I think it was a good decision."
Deavers-Lowie has a lot of confidence in Cnarich's work.
"She is an amazing photographer and I'm very confident in her abilities and I think that her receiving this award just further proves that," Deavers-Lowie said.
To Cnarich, photography is something she really enjoys doing.
"I love photography. It's my passion," Cnarich said. "It makes me feel good that I found something that I really love."
According to Deavers-Lowie, competing in this contest wasn't just about winning.
"Awards are nice, but you like the critique and feedback you get back from them. The fact that she won was excellent," Deavers-Lowie said.
