While many students were enjoying their spring break, the staff of the IV Leader  made their way to Malcolm X College in Chicago for the Illinois Community College Journalism Association two-day spring conference.
As the time for the awards banquet neared, there was some trepidation because the IV Leader was put in a higher division due to a lack of entrants.
“I was upset at first, because we could run uncontested, or we could be unfairly judged because we were competing against bigger schools,” said editor Matthew Gerding.
Disappointment was unnecessary, however, because as the winners were called for the first category, Nathan Grote   managing editor, was called for first place freehand cartoon.
The staff won an unexpected 16 awards total including first place for single photo and first place for sports photo awarded to Laura Roberts , first place for opinion column awarded to Rachel Hettrick, first place news story awarded to Josh Dillon, and first place sports opinion awarded to Alex Pena.
The team collectively won more awards than 95 percent of winning schools, including a second place for overall excellence and a third for layout.
“I knew we were going to come away with something because of the people we have here on staff,” said Dillon, “We all work really hard on this. When I heard we were competing against bigger schools, I figured we would out quality them and win anyway.”