On the one side was an effort to help provide clean water to an area without access to it. On the other side was a drive to feed hungry children in another part of the world.
Competitors in the recent Illinois High School Association sectional championship in editorial cartooning were tasked with creating a panel supporting one cause or the other in advance of a student council decision. But Jenni Marie Schaal, a senior at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, won her second consecutive sectional title in the event by playing it right down the middle.
Schaal’s cartoon showed students struggling to decide between the two fundraisers, both which seemed equally important to them.
“Clearly I chose to make it almost neutral, talking about how both are equally important,” Schaal said.
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The judges at the competition, which took place at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, described Schaal’s efforts as “professional and creative.”
Schaal, who also won in an advertising category at the event, said techniques she’s learned in her art classes, such as shading, add to her cartooning efforts. In her spare time, she also draws, paints, makes collages and dabbles in digital photography.
“Art is my passion,” she said. “I like how we can create things that transfer emotion and other feelings into another type of gesture, like visual representation, as well as a musical take, literature.
“All forms of art really connect people.”
Ane her art is turning heads elsewhere too. Among other recent honors, Schaal was awarded Best in Show for drawing at a South Suburban Conference art exhibit in March. She hopes to become a high school art teacher after attending Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and then a four-year college or university.
Teachers at Richards have also been impressed with Schaal’s journalistic abilities as a writer and editor for The Richards Herald, the school newspaper, as well as her work on a news roundup with video sidebars and stories she compiles for the school web site.
“She is the kind of editor who makes my job easy,” said Nicole Sherrick, an English teacher and adviser for the school newspaper.
“She keeps track of what stories are being written and when they need to be published. She makes sure they have been published correctly or that photos have been cropped and sized correctly for the web site,” Sherrick said.
But Schaal‘s talent goes beyond efficiency and accuracy, the newspaper adviser said.
“The thing that makes her so valuable in a class like Newspaper is that she cares about what the final newspaper looks like,” Sherrick said. “She wants every story and every photo to be their best.”
Janice Neumann is a freelancer for the Daily Southtown.