Ledger-Enquirer announces 2017 Page One Award winners, runners-up

Ashita Patel of Columbus High School won the most prestigious student honor and Taylor Kinkade of Shaw High School won the first-place teacher trophy Tuesday night during the 42^nd annual Page One Awards in the Bill Heard Theatre at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.

Ashita received the Tucker-Wilder Scholarship, given to the most outstanding local high school senior in the journalism category. Kinkade received the Sara Spano Top Teacher Award.

The program, conducted by the Ledger-Enquirer, recognizes the best of the best high school seniors and teachers in the Chattahoochee Valley. This year, 198 seniors and 17 teachers were nominated from the 18 high schools that chose to compete in the 13 student categories and one teacher category. Approximately 8,200 students and teachers have been honored in the 42-year history of the Page One Awards.

“When you consider what these young people have already accomplished, you can’t help but have the utmost confidence in our future,” Ledger-Enquirer president and publisher Rodney Mahone, the emcee, told the crowd. “I want to commend all of the nominees for getting here tonight. The entire community is proud of you, and we know you will go far.”

Columbus High School’s nominees walked the farthest in the theater Tuesday night — because they collected the most awards, taking home nine (seven winners, two runners-up), followed by Brookstone School with five (three winners, two runners-up). Harris County High School and Shaw High School received three awards (one winner, two runners-up). Carver High School and Hardaway High School received two awards (one winner, one runner-up). Glenwood School also received two awards (both runners-up). Marion County High School, Pacelli High School and Smiths Station High School received one award (runner-up).

In addition to trophies, the student and teacher award winners received $1,000, except Ashita, who received $1,500 for winning the Tucker-Wilder Scholarship, named after three former Ledger or Enquirer editors: W.H. Tucker, W.C. Tucker and Bruce Wilder. The student and teacher runners-up received $300 along with plaques. The $19,000 awarded Tuesday night raised the 42-year total to $572,000.

As an honors student, Ashita excels at school inside and outside the classroom. She is editor-in-chief of Columbus High’s yearbook and has helped teach graphic design to the staff. She created an app to keep students, parents, faculty and staff informed about school news, and she has shown rising upperclassmen how to continue the service after she graduates.

In her Page One application, Ashita wrote, “In an age where the public is saturated by fragmented, superficial, often misleading news, good and impactful storytelling is incredibly important. Journalists should feel accountable to the public.”

Ashita also has made a positive impact in the community. She volunteers year-round with the Down Syndrome Society, participating in activities such as the Buddy Walk, Special Olympics, monthly socials and weekly bowling. She started a summer art camp to teach art and communication to students with disabilities.

One of Ashita’s teachers described her as “a young lady well invested in the area of journalism. Her dream job after attaining her degree is to become an investigative journalist. With her impressive skill set and unyielding drive to accomplish even her loftiest goals, it is only a matter of time before she reaches her desired destination.”

As he announced her as the winner, Mahone said, “Those of us at the Ledger-Enquirer are indeed proud to see someone like Ashita Patel entering the field of journalism and are happy to present this award to her.”

After receiving her scholarship, Ashita told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I was very, very surprised. This entire week, I’ve been very nervous about this moment, and I just kept thinking to myself, ‘You know what? Whatever happens, you did your best. You know your goals. You’re still going to be a journalist. So this doesn’t define who you are.’”

But it still feels “so amazing” to win, Ashita added. She plans to attend the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

The Sara Spano Top Teacher Award is named after the late L-E food editor, who retired in 1985. Early in life, she was a teacher. Later, she was a Muscogee County School Board member.

Kinkade, who teaches journalism and audio/video technology and film at Shaw, “epitomize the qualities of a great educator; her methodology incorporates a rare strategy of combining students’ personal accountability, the essential elements of teamwork and owning the final product,” the judges wrote. “Her students’ successes and misses are on public display every day, and, through her leadership, the successes are winning big.”

In her application, Kinkade wrote, “One of my favorite quotes was written by Confucius: ‘Find a job you love and you will never have to work another day in your life.’ I can honestly say this quote sums up exactly how I feel about being an educator.”

After receiving her award, Kinkade told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I love what I do, and I love that I get to share my passion with kids. ... Whether that’s their passion or not, I get to find out what their passion is and hopefully get them just as excited about what they want to do with their future as I am about teaching.”

Kinkade has been teaching for five years, all at Shaw. She came to Columbus as a reporter for WTVM. Five years later, she realized her substitute teaching gigs had become “my greatest days,” she said, “and I really had that ah-hah moment of this is where I’m supposed to be.”

The 2017 Page One Award winners, followed by the runners-up, in each category are (with their high school in parentheses):

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Ledger-Enquirer announces 2017 Page One Award winners, runners-up."