Journalism student Circe Marez, 12, will advance to the regional level of the University Interscholastic League (UIL) academic competition for editorial writing on April 23. She placed 3^rd in the district level competition on Saturday, April 2 at Cy-Fair high school which gives her a high of enough score to move on to the next level. Marez placed 4th in feature writing, 4th in headline writing, and she also competed in the pilot test for copy editing.

Carly Gutierrez, 11, competed in the news writing, editorial writing, feature writing and headline writing competitions. Lizeth Gonzalez, 11, competed in feature writing. Marez is the editor in chief of the school newspaper, The Rampage, Gonzalez is the business manager and Guiterrez  is a staff writer.

The UIL sponsors four journalism contests – news writing, feature writing, editorial writing and headline writing. Students from all 10 high schools in the CFISD district competed at the district level, and then the top three places will advance to regionals. From regionals, the top three places advance to state competition. The UIL journalism program has seen increased participation in recent years. Many contests winners have gone on to excel as professional journalists.

The UIL offers the most comprehensive program of academic competition in the nation. UIL Academics offers more activities than any other UIL division, with 29 contests at the high school level and 20 A+ Academic contests for grades 2-8. More than half a million students participate in UIL academic contests each year.