Mount Pleasant High School senior, Brissia Alvarez, placed 4th in 5A News Writing at the UIL State Academic Meet on Monday, May 18, earning her second UIL State medal. Alvarez won silver in Ready Writing in 2024.

Remarkably, Alvarez had never competed in News Writing until the district meet in March, due to the event conflicting with Spelling. She spent just a few days preparing for the event with her adviser to learn the format, rules, and how to compose a story for the competition. Alvarez took third place at district in her first ever competition, advancing her to region. She then placed second in her second ever meet, advancing to state. And finally, she placed fourth overall in the entire state of Texas and was the top finisher among those from region 2 who competed in state news writing.

In News Writing, students are given a prompt and have 45 minutes to respond with a news story. The judging criteria includes a lead that consists of the most timely and newsworthy information, facts presented in descending order of importance, and use of direct and indirect quotes, among other writing, spelling, style and grammar considerations. This year’s 5A state prompt concerned a newly installed school lockdown system, and competitors were tasked with writing a news story for a high school newspaper.

Alvarez graduated as the Valedictorian of the MPHS Class of 2026 and will attend the University of Texas at Austin and major in Biochemistry. She was coached by John Whitten.

Photo:

Brissia Alvarez (right) with MPHS News Writing coach, John Whitten