Senior Katie Steffen recently earned first place in the Eastern Iowa Reading Council state creative writing contest.

In her creative writing class, Steffen wrote a fiction piece called “The Coffee Date” about not judging people before really knowing what is going on in their lives.

After winning at the local level, her piece was sent to the state competition, where Steffen won first place. Steffen will attend the 2017 Iowa Reading Association conference held at Iowa State University in June, where she will meet Tim Green, author of “Football Hero.”