By Elizabeth Lowe
Staff Writer
Goodrich — When a small student staff at Goodrich High School compiled their annual literary art magazine, they had no idea New York’s Columbia University would award them a Gold Medalist Certificate.
“We’re excited, very excited,” said Vicky Schall, 17, a copy editor for “Reflections”. Laurel and I used to joke around that ‘maybe this year Columbia will even respond, ha, ha.”
“It’s absolutely unheard of for a high school literary magazine to get this far in this competition,” said Laurel Griffiths, 17, who is also a copy editor.
Goodrich High School has published a literary arts magazine for nine years. The magazine includes student-generated artwork, prose, photography, and poetry. A selection staff laboriously evaluated each submission for publication, while the magazine staff laid out the pages.
The spiral-bound magazine, laid out this year in a landscape format, features artwork and copy, carefully matched on each page and printed in shades of gray. A full-color center section was specifically designed to showcase selected brilliant prints, said Jenny Taylor, 17, a photo and artwork editor.
Magazine adviser Kay Goodall has previously judged magazines for Columbia University, and knew the students were on the right track.
“They worked very, very, very hard,” she said. “This is the first time we’ve ever put the magazine in a national competition. We knew we had a good product.”
“Reflections” earned a total of 943 out of 1,000 points in the competition.