District 214 Student Journalists Excel at National Competition

     Twenty-two student journalists from John Hersey, Prospect and Rolling Meadows High Schools were among award winners at the national conference of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Journalism Education Association (JEA) held Nov. 15–18 in San Antonio, Tex.

     Members of The Correspondent, the student newspaper at John Hersey High School, earned an 8th place ranking in NSPA's Best of Show competition in the tabloid/ 9-12 page division.  In JEA's Write-Off competition, senior Claudia Caplan won the top ranking of Superior in the Advertising category.  In addition, senior Nick Diaz received an Excellent in Commentary Writing; junior Brian Loomis earned an Excellent in Sports Copy and Captions, while sophomore Brian Boyle earned an Excellent in Review Writing.  Honorable Mentions were won by senior Kevin Hyde in Copy Editing, senior David Milligan in Newspaper Sports Writing, and junior Jessica Lynk in News Writing, while the team of seniors Maxwell Bestvina and Garret Matchen with junior Scott Bakal earned the Honorable Mention for their Online News package. 

     The staff members of Prospect High School's student newspaper, The Prospector placed in the Best of Show contest, taking 6th place in the 12-16 page category in the broadsheet.  This is the highest finish in Prospect history in this contest.  Five Prospect students received individual recognition.  Receiving the second highest rating of Excellent were sophomore Aungelina Dahm in Yearbook Sports Writing and senior Miranda Holloway in News Writing.  Three Prospect students received the highest rating possible of Superior, the most Prospect has ever received at a single convention.  They were sophomore Peter Fusilero in Sports Writing, senior Kyle Brown in Copy Editing/Headline Writing, and senior Katie Best in Yearbook Student Life.  Best also earned a Superior at last year's convention, making her the first Prospect student to be a repeat Superior winner since 2007-08.

     Six members of The Pacer, the student newspaper at Rolling Meadows High School, received Write-Off awards.  They included junior Julia Dacy, an Excellent in Editorial Writing; senior Liam Brady, an Excellent in Feature Writing; senior Brittney Frazier, an Excellent in News Writing; junior Mia Harper, an Excellent in Copy Editing / Headline Writing; junior Joe Salvato, an Excellent in Review Writing; and junior Peter Timotijevic, an Honorable Mention in Yearbook Student Life Copy/Caption Writing.  In addition to these winners, last year's Editor-in-Chief, Michael McKenna, was named the fifth place winner in the Best Sports Story of the Year category for his story, "A Fan Like No Other." The Pacer was awarded ninth place in the "Best of Show" competition in the 12-16 page category of the broadsheet competition.

     Individually, 1734 students from around the nation competed in the National Write-Off competition, and 677 winners were named.  Of the winners, there were 352 Honorable Mentions, 209 Excellent awards and 116 Superior awards.

     Janet Levin is adviser for Hersey's The Correspondent, Jason Block of Prospect's The Prospector, and Stan Zoller of Rolling Meadows' The Pacer.