FHSD Student Journalists Bring Home the Hardware

Posted on 11/09/2018
FHN students hold their awards at the National High School Journalism Convention

Student journalists in FHSD do some amazing work, and not surprisingly, earn plenty of well-deserved awards and recognition. Most recently representatives from all three Francis Howell high schools traveled to Chicago in November for the National High School Journalism Convention. This gathering of high school journalists and their advisers is sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. With more than 4,000 delegates, the JEA/NSPA convention is the largest gathering of student journalists in the country.

“It was a great few days for the staff,” said FHN Director of Student Media Aaron Manfull. “The team got to hear from leading professionals and connect with other student journalists from around the country. They came back with a lot of great ideas to help move the program forward and take their personal work to that next level.”

Cover of Central Focus newsmagazineThe FHN North Star newsmagazine was selected as a Pacemaker winner in the newspaper category, the sixth straight Pacemaker Award the North Star has earned. “Winning the Pacemaker meant a lot because it’s a testament to our staff’s hard work and abilities,” North Star co-Editor-in-Chief Heeral Patel said. “It shows that we’re creating quality content for our student body.”

In the Best of Show competition, the Central Focus took third place in the Newsmagazine competition, the highest the Central Focus has ever placed in a Best of Show competition. In addition, the Central Focus was recognized as a Pacemaker finalist. The FHHS Howelltonian yearbook captured sixth place, the only Missouri yearbook to place in that category.

Several FHN students were finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association’s individual awards for work that appeared during the 2017-18 school year. Earning Honorable Mention were Lupe Medina and Reide Pearson in the Broadcast Feature Story of the Year category and Hannah Wilson in Editorial Writing. Rebekah Myers received a fourth place award in Comics Journalism and Carolynn Gonzalez and Alex Rowe a fourth place in Newsmagazine Cover. Carolynn Gonzalez also placed third in the Informational Graphic category and Rebekah Myers placed fourth in the Illustration category.

Two FHC graduates, Sydney Robbins and Garrett Allen, both captured a second place award, Sydney in Sports Action Photo for her wrestling photo, and Garrett for his informational graphic on hydration. These are the highest finishes in these categories in FHC history. 

FHHS students at the National High School Journalism ConventionFHN students did well in the 2018 Portfolio of the Year contest, where Emily Hood placed fourth in Broadcast Journalist of the Year, Alex Rowe placed third in Photojournalist of the Year, Sarah Zimmerman placed second in Writer of the Year and Rebekah Myers took the top spot in Artist of the Year.

Seven FHN staffers were honored for their work in the JEA Write-Off Competition at the convention. Earning Honorable Mention were Gracie Bowman in Feature Writing, Mollie Roberts in Sports Writing, Emma Vernon in Yearbook Copy/Caption Student Life and Emily Zhang in Public Service Announcement. Earning an award of Excellent were Rebekah Myers in Editorial Cartooning and Emily Hood in Broadcast Newswriting. The top write-off spot went to Connor Ray, who earned a Superior rating for Yearbook Layout - Inside Pages.

For the six FHHS participants in the Write-off, Honorable Mention went to Vanina Dimitrova in Sports Action Photography and Emily Scott for Review Writing. Excellent ratings were presented to Jenna Pardieck for Feature Writing and Kirstyn Corbett for Yearbook Copy/Caption Academics. FHHS brought home two Superior Awards, Sophia Jacobson for Yearbook Copy/Caption Clubs and Sydney Taylor in Yearbook Copy/Caption Student Life.

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