Every year, the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) awards students who demonstrate excellence in journalism. When NSPA announced its Design of the Year finalists on Sept. 23, Chloe Choi (11) was surprised to see her name amongst other 10 finalists in the Illustration Category. She was nominated for her illustration in last year’s yearbook, Tiger’s Eye, as the first SIS nominee to ever have received this mark of honor.

“I actually first found out during my first period class, Government and Politics, when Mr. Roberts came up to me at the end of class saying ‘Congratulations!’” Chloe said. “At first, I was confused—congratulations for what? However, after seeing Ms. Hogshead, I found out that I had been nominated for my illustration that she submitted last year.”

According to Chloe, her illustration started out as a Design 2 assignment in the optical illusions unit. When Cheryl Lambie, art teacher, told her that the best design would be chosen to be in the yearbook, she began researching artists and sketched her ideas.

“I knew that something related to Tigers or SIS would probably be better for an illustration in the yearbook,” Chloe said. “So I put a tiger as my main subject and tried to make him blend into the environment. The two main aspects about the tiger I focused on were its eyes and its stripes. And from there on, I tried to emphasize those two elements.”

Although she has been nominated, Chloe has not yet received any feedback from NSPA. The winners will be announced at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Washington D.C on Nov. 8. The semi-annual convention, comprised of learning sessions, workshops and award ceremonies, will gather high school journalists and advisers. According to Chloe, she plans on attending if she has free time.

“Although I’m not a big art person, I can see that Chloe is really creative with her ideas and hard-working, which was probably why she was nominated for the award,” said Brian Kim (11). “I am proud of her for coming this far and especially of the fact that she’s the first one at SIS to be nominated for this huge honor.”