Finding a passion can be a long, difficult process. However, for senior Jace Ingle, discovering his love of writing came early on, specifically his journalistic style of writing for the Paolite.
Ingle joined the Paolite staff in eighth grade, directly after being in journalism teacher Heather Nichols’ intro to media class.
“I wanted to join because I have always loved writing, and intro to media really introduced me to the whole world of writing,” said Ingle.
Starting out, Ingle did not have a set pattern when it came to what he wrote about. In the beginning, he was assigned random stories. It was when he started to be assigned to sports stories he found his interest in sports writing. Ingle is now a designated sports writer. Despite this, he occasionally writes stories which are not sports related.
“I can always provide a lot of information about sports and sporting events, and I could write pages about a sports game with the only challenge being to trim it up. It’s like writing about sports takes no effort compared writing about anything else,” said Ingle.
Being a student journalist does not come easy; his biggest challenge is dealing with controversial stories. To Ingle, having to write controversial stories is the hardest part.
“When I wrote about IHSAA policies regarding illegal behavior, I had to be cautious on my wording to be sure I didn’t upset anyone,” said Ingle.
Writing for the high school media department requires a lot of time and effort, and Ingle quickly learned this while being on staff. Additionally, Ingle has learned responsibility, accountability, how to avoid procrastination and to be aware of due dates.
Over the years, Ingle’s writing has won multiple awards over a few different platforms. Ingle has received Best Sports Story from the Southern Indiana Student Press Association Fall Convention at Indiana University Southeast as well as the Indiana High School Press Association Fall Convention at Franklin College on a few different occasions. Ingle has also won Second Place Best Review from the Southern Indiana Student Press Association Fall Convention.
Ingle has been represented many times in PHS’s newspaper and yearbook. It will be hard for him to leave it all behind. In his future career plans, Ingle will not be able to participate in the type of writing he loves to do.
“I know I can write whenever I feel like it, but the Paolite offers [the opportunity] for it to be read by a whole audience of people,” said Ingle.
After high school, Ingle plans on majoring in nursing and receiving his Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, but he has yet to decide a college to attend. Ingle wants to eventually become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, but he is open to change.
Story by Sara Kesterson
