Shield co-editor in chief Nate Williams and staff reporter Beatrix Lozach pose with the 2025 ILPC Gold Star awards that the staff received at today’s ILPC Grand Awards Ceremony at the LBJ Auditorium at UT. The Shield capped off its good weekend at the ILPC spring journalism convention by winning ILPC’s top staff honor for both its print and online newspapers. There were only two newspaper programs in Texas that earned Gold Star awards in both the print and online newspaper categories: the Shield and fellow austinisd publication, the Dispatch at Bowie High School. For MacJ, it is the fourth consecutive year that both the Shield and the Shield Online earned Gold Star awards. Shield adviser Dave Winter holds the ILPC’s Max R. Haddock Teacher of the Year award that he received as the start of the awards assembly. The awards portion of today’s agenda was preceded by a keynote address from Texas Month creative director Emily Kimbro. Kimbro shared the story of her career in journalism and...