At first, Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, executive director of Mizzou Academy, thought her voicemail message was spam.

“The message mentioned a big national award and fancy camera kit prize. I thought it was one of those too good to be true messages, but then the caller named Edna Conness, our student, and I knew it was real.” 

Edna Conness, a first year high school student with Mizzou Academy, was recently named the winner of the School Photographers of America (SPOA) National Student Photography Contest in the Creative category. SPOA is the national trade association for school photography and yearbooks. 

Edna is the first recipient of this prize from an online school. Because of this, David Crandall, executive director of SPOA, asked if the team could host an in-person awards ceremony.

Fishman-Weaver connected with the Conness family, who live a couple of hours away from the University of Missouri campus. Soon the group had an in-person ceremony scheduled. 

Edna, her parents, and younger sister joined several members of the Mizzou Academy team for the event. 

The ceremony began with a review of Edna’s contest portfolio. During the review, everyone oohed and aahed over the photographs, and Edna got to hear positive feedback from Cathy Rose, a professional photographer forthe College of Education and Human Development’s strategic communications team. In addition to joining the celebration, she also took the event photographs shared in this story.

Edna’s portfolio includes breathtaking landscapes from recent travels with her family, macro shots of flowers, and even a couple of moose. Below is the winning photograph followed by a few other recent photos from her growing collection:

Edna recently took and excelled in Mizzou Academy’s photography course taught by Julia Dunn. However, she started taking photographs long before the course and plans to continue well into the future. She also now has some exceptional equipment from Sony who partnered with SPOA to sponsor this competition.At the celebration, Edna was officially named a national champion and received a letter of recognition along with a new Sony A7c camera kit. 

Karen Conness, Edna’s mother, said the ability to pursue passions and extracurriculars is exactly why their family chose Mizzou Academy. For example, in addition to photography, Edna is active on her local robotics team. The online structure gives young people like Edna the opportunity to be flexible with their schedule while also pursuing rigorous academic coursework. 

Fishman-Weaver shares that Mizzou Academy welcomes many talented students to their school each year including athletes, actors, and artists. “I am continuously impressed and inspired by the talents, gifts, and voices of our students.”

This photography contest is another way to highlight student excellence. In SPOA’s press release, Crandall shares, “Seeing students have a passion for photography in high school is incredible for our industry and many others. Having a partner like Sony and the Sony Artisans excited about teaching and providing valuable resources will help fuel future photographers for generations to come.”