From New Year’s Resolution by Kaleigh Aull to The Importance of Equality in our Society by Makayla Procter to Gullah Geechee: Not Just a Celebration of Rice by Gabriel Hughes, our students at Brunswick County Early College put forth their best effort in creating stories that can be enjoyed by all. Their dedication to journalism is evident in the spectacular pieces they write and thus they should be recognized for this hard work.

Kaleigh Aull, a graduate of Early College, won the Scholarship Award. She received $200 along with the title. Aull believes that participating in The Teen Scene assisted in furthering her writing capabilities, as well as taught her speaking skills. In the fall, she is going to NC State and majoring in English, with a concentration in creative writing. “This award will affect me positively because it will assist me in paying for college,” says Aull. She regards receiving an award from The Teen Scene as a high honor.

Junior Makayla Procter also won an award at the banquet. She was named Freelance Writer Of The Year. A freelance writer is essentially one who does it all. They can write on various topics and show flexibility within their writing. This is definitely true of Makayla Procter, who uses her writing to engulf the reader in the topic. 

She gives credit for her win to Gerald Decker who guided her to the writing path that she is on right now. She feels that her dedication to The Teen Scene also helped her win this award. It looks like her hard work paid off! 

“Winning this award has given me motivation to push myself even further in the future to strive to be the best reporter I can be. I plan to do so much with my career and winning this award has proven to me that other people see my goals and potential which makes me confident that I am heading down the right path,” says Procter, The Teen Scene Freelance Writer of the Year.

Freshman Gabriel Hughes also won an award. He received Reporter of the Year at the banquet. During his time as a The Teen Scene writer, he has not only written many outstanding articles but has also gone out into the community to collect information in order to enhance his understanding of the topics he is writing about. 

Hughes has reported on the founder of The Teen Scene, Gerald Decker, as well as many others with interesting stories to learn about. Gabriel has talked to and told so many peoples’ stories through his work, which is why he deserves the award that he received. He believes that his hard work on The Teen Scene projects such as the STEM project report done by him and Procter contributed to his win.

 “I put my heart and soul into this. I really connect with everyone I talk to, and that’s what I feel like helped me win this award.” says Hughes. He feels that this experience of networking and writing will help him achieve his goal of becoming a lawyer in the future.

Decker described the banquet planning as a great deal of work.

“We had to come up with a budget of expenses, reserve the space, develop a marketing plan and a division of labor for implementing the plan. I went all over town talking to individuals and groups like the Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce looking for sponsors. Ms. Swegle ordered the meals, trophies, and certificates, and selected the winners based on input from several judges, and arranged the seating assignments. Ms. Bryans took on doing most of the work on the monthly publication and worked with the teens to do their video productions.”

When choosing the winners, Mr. Decker said he looked for stories that were creative, interesting, and held the reader’s attention. He also took into account how well the public received the articles of each writer. This factor is measured in likes each article gets on The Teen Scene website.

“The growth of our group has been excellent. We now have a small group of dedicated writers who are willing to work outside their comfort zones and try new things. We have hope that this group will have the dedication to run The Teen Scene very soon. This next year, starting in June, I think will be our first group of the Communications and Leadership Academy that I have wanted for several years,” Decker says in response to the growth he has seen in his teen writers of the year. 

This event would not have been possible without so many special people who support The Teen Scene. Mary Beth Livers, who was the event sponsor, is one of those individuals. She is on the Brunswick Arts Council. Another sponsor is Carl Parker who has been donating and helping out The Teen Scene for several years. He is notably the president of Brunswick County NAACP. Other sponsors include Drawfire, Duke Energy, Deb Pickett, Signature Wealth Strategies, Farm Bureau, Jan Lydon, First Bank, and Mary Lou Wong Chong. The Teen Scene is lucky to have so many people who want to help them out.

This banquet presented a time of rejoice for excellent journalism. Congratulations to all who won! Not only was it an honor to be in attendance, it also inspired me to continue working hard at improving my own writing skills. We hope to see you next year at the 6th Annual Cape Fear Voices/ Teen Scene Awards Banquet!