Hard work paid off for journalism staff who won several honors and awards including a national Silver Crown Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and also the state’s top rating of Distinguished Merit from the Interscholastic League Press Association. Additionally, individual staff members took home top awards.
Students took home first place in state for ILPC editorial writing, Infographic/sidebar, comic strip, and sports feature photo. HBCN broadcast staff and The Gavel online earned the achievement rating at state, and Gavel Online Social Media staff took home 2nd place in Social media in state. Students also received second place in state for personal opinion column and comic strip, and took home six other state honorable mention awards.
Junior Alondra Martinez, Gavel Copy Editor and staff writer, expressed her gratitude about being recognized with these awards.
“It’s a really good feeling to be recognized on a national level and a state level. Our newspaper is actually really good,” Martinez said.
Senior Co-editor of the Gavel Alicia Yanez explained the reason for the Journalism department’s achievements.
“The reason why we’re winning these awards is because we have such a diverse staff. We sit around and really discuss things that are going on that are important in our community and in our world,” Yanez said.
The staff puts in a lot of work and thought into the many publications, and the Gavel staff pays attention to things going around in the community and they tackle both fun and important topics.
“We don’t limit ourselves to stereotypes. We feel like we address topics and take the topics seriously as journalists,” Yanez said.
The staff’s awards are appreciated, but not the goal. Instead, staff members hope to produce news that is important and interesting to the campus and community.
“We look for stories that need to be told, and we tell them. We also look for stories that we know people would like and we bring some insight to our readers,” Martinez said.
The coveted crown award from Columbia puts your publication in the top one percent of high school papers in the nation…and that is certainly where it belongs. The ILPC award confirms that.
For you to have taken so many top individual awards at the state level further confirms that it is not just the editors or the adviser, but the whole staff who are seeking excellence individually on a daily basis.
Congratulations to each and every one of you. You make me so proud!