NEWSPA awards $500 scholarship by Haley Walters
J
oseph
Lorenz
entered his first year
at UW Mad-
ison
$500 richer, thanks to his hard work at his high school newspaper, The Talon, which paid off as a NEWSPA scholarship. Lorenz graduated from Sheboygan Falls High School after working on the school’s newspaper for four years where he grew as a writer and editor. “One day, I went to the newspaper office and found a printout taped to the door regarding the NEWSPA scholarship,” Lorenz said. “I asked [my adviser] about it and she said that she had left it for me specifically. When she said that she thought I could win the scholarship, it was an odd feeling to hear someone say they have faith in me, so it seemed like as good a reason as any to go for it.” Before attending the conference, Lorenz had some suspicions about winning the scholarship. “One morning, I’m in the newspaper office and our editor-in-chief, Amy Zhang, is having a conversation with Ms. Degenhardt [adviser],” Lorenz said. “When she notices me, she says to me ‘You and I are going on a date.’ More specifically, she told me that I’d be attending the instructor’s lunch at NEWSPA. I had a feeling it had to do with the scholarship, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up, just to make sure I would be crushingly disappointed.” Lorenz is currently studying English at UW Madison and is deciding between pursuing creative writing or journalism. “I give it thought everyday, and it’s safe to say that it won’t be an easy choice,” Lorenz said. “I’d like to put my writing talents to use in some field. Journalism is a very likely category.” Lorenz’s interest in journalism began when he started writing for his high school newspaper during freshman year. He eventually worked his way to becoming an award-winning feature writer and joined the editing staff junior year. “I’ve always enjoyed writing, but when I got to high school there weren’t a whole lot of options for me to pursue with writing,” Lorenz said. “The only real one seemed to be the Talon, so I figured I’d give it a shot. It just kind of stuck.” At his time at the paper, Lorenz and fellow staff member Stpen Parent wrote a regular feature column called Dual Perspective, which won an award at NEWSPA for humor columns. “Our editor submitted it as a humor column, which was not how Stephen and I wrote it as,” Lorenz said. “From that point, we just rolled with it.” Later on he continued writing humor during his junior year with “Everything’s Coming Up Joey.” uwosh.edu/journalism/newspa 06
Photo by Alex Beld
Joseph Lorenz accepts his NEWSPA Scholarship during the adviser luncheon at last year’s NEWSPA conference. He now attends UW-Madison for English.
“The amount of thought that goes into those silly cartoons you see in papers is crazy and humor is a billion times harder than you think,” Lorenz said. Lorenz attended NEWSPA two times where he attended sessions and the award ceremonies. “I always loved the award ceremony, since it brought together the entirety of our newspaper writers as well as the yearbook students that attended,” Lorenz said. “It was always fun to applaud the winners, applaud winners from our school a bit harder and gossip with everyone in between the announcements.” After his experience as a student journalist, Lorenz said he learned a lot from working on the high school newspaper and offers some advice for students interested in doing the same. “Write for your school newspaper,” Lorenz said. “Edit for your school newspaper. Spend way too much time after school working for your school newspaper. Read journalistic articles of all kinds. Suggest stupid ideas for your school newspaper. Go to NEWSPA. Follow grammar rules and the like, but don’t be boring.” Lorenz said it’s important to be confident and follow your instincts. “Listen to that stupid little voice in your head, he won be 500 bucks,” Lorenz said.