HUMBOLDT — Humboldt High students have carted home a truckload of journalism awards over the past nine years for good reason, they’ve had Kim Isbell as their leader.
Isbell is this year’s winner of the coveted Jackie Engel Award, given to top Kansas high school teachers who have demonstrated excellence in publications advising.
Isbell gave credit to the enthusiasm and dedication of her students for her winning the award.
To wit: Humboldt High journalism students have won five state championships and will compete for their fourth straight this spring. The other four years with Isbell as their adviser they finished second.
They have reason to be confident.
Cubs Tracks, their school newspaper, won the regional title at Pittsburg State University and qualified 30 entries for the upcoming state competition at the University of Kansas on May 3.
“That was out of 38 entries,” Isbell crowed.
Humboldt’s success story has a strong foundation. Isbell succeeded longtime adviser Allen Wilhite, who also was named a Jackie Engel Award winner in 2005.
TEACHING high school journalism wasn’t in Isbell’s plans at the start.
When she enrolled at Emporia State University her intention was to earn a degree in education and teach at the elementary level.
After a time, Isbell changed course to teach high school English. She also wrote a few things for the ESU yearbook, which she enjoyed enough that she added journalism classes to her studies.
In her rotation as a student teacher, Isbell was supervised by Phyllis Wipf in Maize, another Engel prize winner from 1998.
“I had lot of good mentors,” she said, including Engel winners at McPherson and Chase County before coming to Humboldt while Wilhite was still on board.
Nowadays, Isbell feels she is exactly where she needs to be.
