Junior Melissa Griffith recently won first prize at a Photo Shoot Off at the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) conference at the University of Missouri on April 2.

Griffith entered in the contest, which asked students to capture the the spirit of the unexpected on campus.  Griffith entered the photo of a student going through a puddle that had accumulated on campus due to thunderstorms.

The Pepper Box and Melaureus staff took 22 students on the trip, and they learned new techniques about writing, design, photograph, and the use of social media to connect more with the readers.  The staffs will be implementing what they learned into the remaining publications this year and incorporating more of them next school year.