Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program began offering its free, fully online “Launching a High School Newspaper” course to NYC public high school teachers beginning in Fall 2021. So far, 16 new high school newspapers have been launched by teachers during the course or soon after course completion.

These schools will all be receiving $1,000 grants to further encourage and support their school newspapers thanks to a grant to Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program from the Charles H. Revson Foundation.

Thank you so much to all of the teachers and students who worked so hard to launch new newspapers in your schools and thank you to the Google News Initiative for your partnership and to the Charles H. Revson Foundation and PressPass NYC for your collaboration!

The next course session begins in September. For information and to register, please check this page:

Registration is Open For Fall 2023 “Launching a High School Newspaper” Online Course for NYC High School Teachers

The 2023 Baruch College High School Journalism Program’s Best In NYC Public High School Journalism Newsies! Winners (with Winning Submission URL’s and Judges’ Bios & Comments)

Features

Judge: Amy Zimmer

Amy Zimmer is the Bureau Chief for Chalkbeat New York. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered education for the New York news site DNAinfo. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Metro newspaper, and City Limits, among other outlets. Her book, “Meet Miss Subways,” focused on one of the nation’s first integrated beauty contests. Amy received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Yale and has a master’s in journalism from New York University. She got her start in journalism writing for The Beacon, the student newspaper at Forest Hills High School in Queens.

Features, Citywide First Place Winner:

Townsend Harris High School, The Classic, “Despite state funds, Queens College Bridge Program funding remains uncertain long term. A look at why THHS continues to push for greater support.” by Cecilia Taravella, William Rhee, Ryan Eng, Cate Nguyen, and Jennifer Quisi.

thhsclassic.com/16746/news/bridge-program-funding/

This piece took a subject that is critically important to its community and dove deep. It has an accountability angle in terms of what’s at stake for students if the school loses its longstanding college bridge program. And it gave the reader a glimpse into the courses and what makes them so special to students (past and present), both academically and financially. The five reporters on this story interviewed current and former students in the bridge program, including an alum who is now a professor in the program as well as one who is a politician fighting for its survival. The paper has clearly been on this story for a while, and because of that, it helped the Classic reporters to write about this subject with authority.

Features, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Edward R. Murrow High School, The Murrow Network, “First generation students reflect on the college process,” by Annabel Rothfeld.

themurrownetwork.wordpress.com/2023/01/21/first-generation-students-reflect-on-the-college-process/

This nicely written story zooms in on the college application process, focusing on an angle that speaks to many of the school’s students: what it’s like for first generation applicants. It has strong details, images of the students interviewed, and clearly states why it is so relevant to its readers: more than a third of Murrow’s students have English as a second language and many of these students will be the first in their family to attend college. The vignettes from the students illustrated various hurdles they faced. It was also interesting to hear the viewpoint from faculty, especially that only half the spots the college office offered for FAFSA help were used.

Features, New Newspaper First Place Winner:

The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, The Eagle Express, “From Ancient Greece to HS223: Inside the scramble for recommendation letters,” by Jason Garcia.

This piece took a topic that is relevant to the lives of so many students and elevated it in a way that was not only useful and user-friendly but also fun and engaging. It starts with a call to action: don’t be shy to ask teachers for recommendation letters. But this piece isn’t merely a guide on how to ask for such letters. Yes, it has practical tips, but it also has so much more: quotes from students and staff, helpful data points from school faculty, and a fascinating mini-history lesson. It also has a smart conversational tone that speaks directly to its audience, grabbing the reader’s attention.

hs223eagleexpress.com/106/news/recommendation-letters/

Remarks for the Category:

Features should speak to your readers and illuminate new angles or take deep dives into topics that are newsworthy to them — and should clearly make the case for why the reader should care. Reading these features felt like giving me a front-row seat at what’s important to students at various schools. I enjoyed reading about the performances your schools put on, the debates over masking, and the fascinating members of your school communities. Great features should also have a strong writing, incorporate interesting details, have quotes from students and staff in the school community, and include images. It’s important to have a solid “nut graf,” as we say in the newsroom. That’s the paragraph toward the top that clearly states the “so what” of your story. And while features are different from hard news stories, it’s important to ground features in some kind of news hook, using data when possible, to illustrate why the piece matters right now.

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Illustration/Comic/Cartoon

Judge Barry Blitt

Barry Blitt is a cartoonist and illustrator. Since 1992, he has contributed illustrations and more than a hundred covers to The New Yorker. In 2020, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, for work that included several covers for the magazine, as well as an array of cartoons that appeared in its pages and on its Web site. Blitt’s work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, and he illustrated Frank Rich’s weekly column in the New York Times. He has been honored with exhibitions and awards from the Society of Illustrators, Print, and American Illustration, and is a member of the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. His work for children includes “George Washington’s Birthday” and “Once Upon a Time, the End (Asleep in 60 Seconds).” His latest book,“Blitt,” is a compilation of his illustrations for The New Yorker, the Times, Vanity Fair, and other publications.

Illustration/Comic/Cartoon, Citywide First Place Winner:

Midwood High School, Faizah El-Gamasy – “My Friend From Mars.”

“My Friend From Mars” is a delightful cartoon by Faizah El-Gamasy. It balances humor and science fiction – and in a casual, offhand way describes what life is like for a student in 2023 [in the USA, and on Mars]. As a bonus, it’s beautifully drawn and colored. Bravo!

www.midwoodargus.com/blog/2022/5/27/my-friend-from-mars

Illustration/Comic/Cartoon, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Edward R. Murrow High School, Juan Colon and Jenniah Phillips – “The Snack Scam.”

“The Snack Scam” by Juan Colon and Jenniah Phillips is a humorous cartoon that builds its comic set up nicely. The banter between the expressive characters is a hoot, and the gag is laid out and paced perfectly, leading to a conclusion that is funny and unexpected.

themurrownetwork.wordpress.com/2023/01/11/comic-the-snack-scam/

Illustration/Comic/Cartoon, Honorable Mention:

NYC Lab School, C.A.T., by Brooke Aviles, for the very lovely and interesting artwork and visual presentation.

Remarks for the Category:

This is a perilous time for editorial cartoonists – many newspapers and magazines have stopped running visual commentary, as the publishing industry as a whole changes. So the remaining cartoonists in the field are by necessity passionate and driven. It was a pleasure for me to review the entries in this category – much of the work appeared to have been enjoyable to create, and that is a good sign of the artists’ enthusiasm – and passion – for their craft.

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Multimedia

Judge: Alexa Capeloto

Alexa Capeloto is an associate professor of journalism and media at John Jay College/CUNY. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and has worked as a reporter and editor at The Glendale News-Press, The Detroit Free Press and The San Diego Union-Tribune, eventually serving as the Union-Tribune’s enterprise editor. Since joining the John Jay faculty in 2009, she has published several legal, scholarly and journalistic articles related to Freedom of Information laws, paying particular attention to the intersection of privatization and the public’s right to know.

Multimedia, Citywide First Place Winner:

Francis Lewis High School,“Pandemic Performances: How the Arts are Surviving COVID-19,” Christina Dakis, Sandy Gan and Seva Karonis.

In an 8-minute video these students offer a multifaceted portrait of the state of performing arts in their school during the pandemic. They cover drama, dance and music. They capture A-roll, B-roll, various shots and angles, student voices, faculty voices, helpful narration – all of it edited into a smooth, intuitive mix that brings the viewer right into the story. The piece feels effortless, and the work it took to achieve that effect must have been quite the opposite.

flhsnews.com/8303/arts-entertainment/pandemic-performances-how-the-arts-are-surviving-covid-19/

Multimedia, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Townsend Harris High School, “Harrisites Sit-In Against Educator Sexual Misconduct,” Devin Wu

Kudos to The Classic for continuing its reporting around the sexual misconduct controversy at Townsend Harris High School. This student was on the ground during a powerful sit-in by THHS students, and interviewed students, faculty and administrators that day for individual perspectives. There probably had to be some quick work and decision-making to capture this event, and it was done well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJi5fB3086M

Remarks for the Category:

It was a pleasure seeing the great multimedia work being done here. Each entry had a unique strength that made me root for it. Keep pursuing stories with visual and audio elements, because audiences crave them. With video work, remember to move your feet more than the camera lens. Keep your shots steady and, if you must move or pan, go slow. With all types of multimedia work, orient your audience at every turn so they understand what’s happening and can just surrender to the storytelling.

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National/World News with a Local Lens

Judge: Lonnie Isabel

Lonnie Isabel has been a reporter, editor, and journalism professor, much of it in New York. He is currently a writer and press freedom advocate in Oklahoma. Lonnie was a deputy managing editor of Newsday, where he led coverage of several presidential campaigns, the second Iraq war, Sept. 11 and other major stories. He has taught journalism at CUNY and Columbia Journalism School.

National/World News with a Local Lens, Citywide First Place Winner:

Midwood High School,Alika Awan, Ciara Verneige and Tammy Chan,

“Secret Company Documents Reveal the Not-So-Perfect Side of Instagram.”

www.midwoodargus.com/blog/2022/1/8/secret-company-documents-reveal-the-not-so-perfect-side-of-instagram

A thoroughly researched story that skillfully weaves impactful and emotional student comments as they react to the disclosure that Instagram executives knew that the app was having a devastating impact on some teenagers who felt body shamed and bullied. The result was a memorable article that illustrates how the news caused students at Midwood to think about their usage of the app and to acknowledge their own negative experiences and feelings.

National/World News with a Local Lens, Citywide Second Place Winner:

The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, The Eagle Express,

Ranyeli Rodriguez, “A Hurricane is Felt in Puerto Rico – And 1,600 Miles Away At HS223.”

hs223eagleexpress.com/640/news/hurricane-fiona/

An excellent job of bringing home the impact of a Hurricane in Puerto Rico to students at the school 1,600 miles away. The reporter packs the story with context about New York City’s large Puerto Rican population and how it responds to help relatives and others on the island where hurricanes have been frequent. The deft use of quotes and paragraphs to set up those quotes made the story flow narratively. And the kicker was the best of the group.

National/World News with a Local Lens, New Newspaper First Place Winner: The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, see above under Citywide Second Place Winner in this category.

Remarks for the Category:

Each year the writing, layout and reporting gets exponentially better in these contest entries. The stories are well-researched and edited. The winners brought several key things to the table. One, their idea and approach was well thought out and specific. In short, they focused sharply. Second, there was a new twist to it, a fresh angle or perspective, and lastly, they were lavishly reported. The writers were able to write with authority that can be accomplished only through intimate knowledge of the subject.

One other observation: Several well-done submissions seemed out of place in this category—because they were editorials or infographics. Perhaps there should be categories for those as well.

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Opinion/Editorial

Judge: Robert A. George

Robert A. George is a member of the Bloomberg Opinion Editorial Board and previously served on the editorial boards of the New York Post and Daily News. He has been writing about New York and national issues for more than two decades. He was born in Trinidad and lived in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. A 1986 graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, George worked for the Republican National Committee and, following the 1994 midterm elections, Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. In addition to his newspaper work, George has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, Fox and other political affairs outlets. He’s written for the conservative National Review, libertarian Reason and progressive HuffPost. A cofounder of the political improv podcast Electoral Dysfunction, George is also a stand-up comic.

Opinion/Editorial, Citywide First Place Winner:

Townsend Harris High School, The Classic, “It Is Time For the DOE to Free All Student Newspapers From the Threat of Censorship,” by Janna Habibulla, Izegbuwa Adun, Elliot Heath, Kate Estevez, and Victoria Siebor.

thhsclassic.com/15538/opinion/editorial-it-is-time-for-the-doe-to-free-all-student-newspapers-from-the-threat-of-censorship/

The thoughtfulness that went into this editorial was quite impressive. In an era when a basic understanding of the rules of journalism is absent, a meditation on the importance of encouraging honest reporting without fear or favor and giving young journalists the freedom to pursue stories that might prove embarrassing to the powers that be is vitally important. The writers of this piece clearly understand the stakes and the responsibilities of their craft and why they and their peers should be given as much of a free hand and respect as any professional journalist. The editorial is passionately argued – appropriate given that the underlying issue ultimately involved student safety – but supported with persuasive examples of how student journalists can cover controversial topics, work with adult advisors (both inside and outside the school) without being interfered with due to potential institutional embarrassment. Most notably, it calls out a government agency – the Department of Education – and urges it to create a uniform objective standard for all student publications. In every sense, the editorial is timely, speaks truth to power and deserves the widest distribution.

Opinion/Editorial, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Manhattan Center For Science and Mathematics, The Ram-Page, “A Guide to Post-Pandemic Teen Mental Health,” by Nicole Manning.

mcsmrampage.com/2021/09/a-guide-to-post-pandemic-teen-mental-health/

A very well-reported opinion column on an important topic. The secondary effects of the pandemic arguably hit young people the hardest – between virtual learning, loss of interaction with friends and missing basic coming-of-age moments like prom and graduation. The long-term emotional impact will not be known for some time. Ms. Manning buttressed her personal perspective with multiple other viewpoints, including from other students, teachers and parents. The piece also includes recommendations from mental health and pediatric experts too. All told, the opinionated article (used in the very best sense of the term) fully captures the moment as well as the options available as schools and society at large struggle to address the challenges facing young people in this extraordinary time. Too often, the topic of mental health can pit various stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, professionals against one another. Ms. Manning persuasively argues that ideally, all should be working in concert. Her willingness to share her own experience with anxiety was particularly enlightening in that regard. All in all, an excellent written presentation.

Opinion/Editorial, Citywide Honorable Mention: Bard High School Early College Queens, Bard Broadside, “Cell Phone Policy,” by Maggie Chen,

bardbroadside.wixsite.com/bhsecq/post/cell-phone-policy-by-maggie-chen-24

Another timely piece on the intersection of technology and education. Bard High School Early College Queens has evidently adopted a strict policy governing cellphone use on school grounds. Ms. Chen explores what appears to be arbitrary enforcement of the policy – including confiscation of phones even after school has technically been out. Ms. Chen raises a number of legitimate points and includes several student perspectives at the conclusion. The piece could have done with at least one statement that reflected the administration’s perspective. That said, this is a well-argued column that reflects the legitimate tensions today’s elementary and high school students feel: On the one hand, schools feel the need to keep technological distractions (and cheating opportunities) out of the classroom; on the other hand, phones are vitally necessary as communication and safety tools for parents and students. Ms. Chen captures this conundrum well. She also underscores the irony inherent in a strict policy partly undermined by teachers emailing their students at times of the day when the students technically don’t have access to their phones: “The cell phone policy seems not to coincide with the increasing reliance on technology (by both students and faculty) in education.” Indeed. One hopes that BHSEC administrators read this and consider changes to the policy.

Opinion/Editorial, New Newspaper First Place Winner:

Bronx River High School, Bronx River News, “From nervous freshman to seniors ready to take on the world,” by Parmeshwar Singh, Lidia Gomez, Perry Williams Jr, Kristyn Brown, Oscar Diaz Cuadra and Bryan Garcia.

bronxrivernews.org/2022/03/from-nervous-freshman-to-seniors-ready-to-take-on-the-world/

A novel approach for an end-of-term editorial page: The board members of the Bronx River News reflect on their high school experiences. For high school students, four years is akin to a lifetime, when youngsters take the major steps and decisions that will inform the individuals they will be for the rest of their lives. Given that this cohort suffered through a 100-year pandemic, it was nice to see a couple observations on how Covid impacted them and how they responded to it. Staff writer Oscar Diaz Cuadra, for example, shared his brief transfer to a New Jersey school before deciding to switch back so he could, in a most poignant observation, “finish my senior year with the people I had grown with” (notably, not “grown up with). Given the diversity of perspectives and voices on the editorial staff, this was a smart experiment and enjoyable exercise. More student newspapers should encourage similar “career” reflective pieces – either from the editorial staff or solicited from the student body at large.

Opinion/Editorial, New Newspaper Second Place Winner:

Queens School of Inquiry, QSInquirer, “First plastic-free lunch day disappoints,” by Cai Racpan.

qsinquirer.com/718/uncategorized/first-plastic-free-lunch-day-was-a-disappointment/

With climate change and environmental policy taking up the attention of many in the younger generation, Cai Racpan offers a critical eye to the school’s recent plastic-free lunch day – particularly the disappointment stemming from the lack of takeup on the event. Racpan argues that there was not enough publicizing of the event outside of the expected environment and climate change communities. In the future, Racpan might take care on a topic like this to pay closer attention to hyphen placement given that “plastic-free” or “free-lunch” are easily confused phrases. But that’s a mild concern. Racpan’s central concern – that both students and administration should do more to publicize the occasion going forward. As the author notes, the downside of this being overlooked isn’t in just the missed day of observation; there is also the risk that more students, like Racpan, will grow more cynical that climate change will ever be seriously confronted.

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Photojournalism

Judge: Mehrunnisa Wani

Mehrunnisa Wani is a photojournalist and Assistant Professor of English. She is passionate about the coverage of marginalized communities, challenges faced by BIPOC communities, and social justice and solutions journalism. She has contributed to the History Channel, Chalkbeat, and Forbes.

Photojournalism, Citywide First Place Winner:

Columbia Secondary School, Image of the state of the school gym, by Dahlia Landry.

The photograph by Dahlia Landry is extraordinarily brilliant. The angle and composition of the photograph make the problem visible – amidst the tall piles of desks, the gymnasium is certainly not conducive to play. The student attempting to cull the ball from a precarious and dangerous stack also exemplifies how alarming a problem it is. This photograph illustrates the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Truly, sometimes words alone can’t convey what is occurring in a story and this particular moment captured in this photograph transposes the reader to that scene.

Photojournalism, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Francis Lewis High School, Culinary Program photo by Sophia Park and Taylor Burke.

flhsnews.com/8524/showcase/culinary-program-serves-up-a-full-plate-of-experience/

The photographs affixed to the story covered all different angles. From the food, to behind the scenes, to the raw emotions, this encapsulated a full reportage of this culinary program. The diversification of shots – the shots ranged from wide shots, medium shots, point of view shots, to close-up shots – and the documentation of the process was praiseworthy. Remember to show the vastness of a scene and to provide readers with the full picture. It’s imperative to understand that a photo must capture the visual representation of the story so the photographs must be able to stand on their own.

Photojournalism, New Newspaper First Place Winner: Pace High School, Pacer NYC, “Season of the Track Stars” by Winifred Haastrup.

pacernyc.com/1123/sports/season-of-the-track-stars/#modal-photo

The shots comprehensively covered track season at Pace High School. Sports photography requires tons of equipment – mostly versatile telephoto and zoom lens that can focus on movement, and largely on the subject. With outdoor sports you want to ensure that you have the right exposure — and that may require playing around with camera settings. The camera angles were varied, and the light was just right!

Remarks for the Category:

Get close. Get raw. Focus on emotions, on the unusual, and on the details. Always take more shots than you think you will need and from different angles. You never know which shots you’ll need or end up using, and you may not have the opportunity to go back and redo it because of the nature of journalism. Plan your shots beforehand and examine what the best possible image is to complement that story. Remember to photograph people (and) in action – not just inanimate objects. Always think about how your photograph can supplement your story and think of new ways that you can photograph the topic responsibly. Photojournalism conveys narratives that are fraught with emotions and complexities so always be conscious of how you can compose a photograph to do justice to these topics!

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School/Community News

Judge: Jere Hester

School/Community News, Citywide and New Newspaper First Place Winner:

Pace High School, “Underfunded Library Remains Off-Limits Despite State Mandate,” Angel Mejia Ramirez, Pacer NYC.

pacernyc.com/936/news/library-remains-underfunded-and-unused-despite-state-mandate/

Why has a library that’s supposed to serve three schools been used as seemingly everything but a library for the last decade-plus? Angel Mejia Ramirez turned a good question into a great story that exposed a failure to serve students in defiance of a state mandate.

School/Community News, Citywide and New Newspaper Second Place Winner:

Bronx River High School, “Lehman Campus Crosswalk: Vehicles Race Through Red Lights on School Days,” Sara Singh and Elvia Serrano, with Arleth Vargas, Adriana Sadiku and Katie Ordaz, Bronx River News.

bronxrivernews.org/2022/06/lehman-campus-crosswalk-vehicles-race-through-red-lights-on-school-days/

The team at Bronx River News put their observations about traffic dangers lurking outside their school to the test, and found a very real danger to their community. Their work spurred a request (so far unfulfilled) from school officials for the installation of a red-light camera.

Remarks for the Category

The best stories in an overall strong field of entries show that asking questions inspired by lived experience, observation and talking to — and listening to — fellow community members can lead to meaningful local journalism.

Some general suggestions: Look for opportunities to include as many voices from the school community as possible. Be careful of letting editorializing creep into your stories: Your reporting is more powerful when you let it speak for itself. Uncovering things that are wrong — or going wrong — is a major part of any high-impact story, but make a point of seeking out people who might have solutions.

Overall, it’s heartening to see stories with a strong sense of service to the community. That’s what journalism is all about.

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Sports Writing

Judge: Randal Archibold

Randal C. Archibold is the sports editor of The New York Times. He joined the desk in July 2015, and helps coordinate and edit news and enterprise stories across a range of topics. Once in a while, he writes one, too. For five years, between 2010 and 2015, he was The Times’s bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico City. He wrote a lot about drugs but also social issues and once even about a soap opera. Before beginning his assignment there in August 2010, he was a national correspondent based in Los Angeles. He covered a large swath of the southwestern United States and wrote extensively on the border and immigration, including Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration. He also did pieces on the lighter side, including the story of a fish in a desert. He joined the paper in 1998 as a reporter on the Metro staff and has written on a variety of subjects, including education and politics. He covered the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, writing a series on the residents of the damaged apartment building closest to the towers. His political reporting has included coverage of John Edwards’s 2004 presidential campaign and the 2005 New York City mayoral election. Before joining The New York Times, Mr. Archibold worked for five years at The Los Angeles Times as a reporter and editor and before that several places in California and New Jersey, many of which, sadly, no longer exist. Mr. Archibold graduated from Rutgers University and then spent several months studying history and Spanish in Panama, from which his parents immigrated. He considers himself a New Jerseyan living in exile in New York.

Sports Writing, Citywide First Place Winner:

Midwood High School, “Beyond the Finish Line: Life Lessons and Brotherhood in Outdoor Track,” by Lucas Paschke and Manuel Lozano-Velez.

www.midwoodargus.com/blog/2022/5/26/beyond-the-finish-line-life-lessons-and-brotherhood-in-outdoor-track

Sports Writing, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Stuyvesant High School, “The Real Cost of Stuyvasant Sports,” by John Jay Wang.

www.stuyspec.com/sports/sports-at-stuyvesant/the-real-cost-of-stuyvesant-sports

Comments:

This was really close but I would give the edge to Midwood for lively writing setting a nice scene and colorful description with plenty of voices. This quote in particular was excellent, “Running is physical pain that you have to fight through with your mind,” said junior Sajid Amin. “It requires a lot of commitment and dedication, as well as consistency.” Stuyvesant took on an important subject with a good combination of research and student voices.

Sports Writing, Citywide Honorable Mention:

Townsend Harris High School, “Boys Badminton Team defeats Stuyvesant to win PSAL Championship,” by Ryan Eng.

thhsclassic.com/15340/sport/boys-badminton-team-defeats-stuyvesant-to-win-psal-championship/

Sports Writing, Citywide Honorable Mention:

Francis Lewis High School, “FLHS Girls’ Sports Teams Surpass Boys’ Teams, by Marcellino Melika and Alejandro Miranda.

flhsnews.com/9847/sports/flhs-girls-sports-teams-surpass-boys-teams/

Sports Writing, New Newspaper First Place Winner:

Pace High School, Pacer NYC,

“Girls’ Basketball Team Dominated Their League this Season,” by Katelyn Seetaram.

pacernyc.com/962/sports/girls-basketball-team-dominated-their-league-in-2021-22/

Sports Writing, New Newspaper Second Place Winner:

Bronx River High School, Bronx River News, “Vollyball Team Pulls Off Major Upset,” by Elvia Serrano

and Sara Singh.

bronxrivernews.org/2022/10/volleyball-team-pulls-off-major-upset/

Comments:

The Pacer delivered an engaging story with a nice lede and important context on the impact of the pandemic. The quotes went beyond expression of joy to elaborating on the difficulty of the season and the journey. The story was a little heavy on adjectives but the effort and execution were solid. The Bronx River News was a strong second but needed more voices quoted. Still, it had some nice details such as the players’ fretting the game on the way over and their getting doughnuts the next day.

Overall for New Newspaper Sports Writing: These entries show a lot of promise for new newspapers, an exciting development. The game story can be important for the community, and I would love to see more profiles and pieces that break down how a team is winning/losing and why.

Remarks for the Sports Writing Category:

A strong performance. I was particularly impressed with the effort to take on weighty subjects like Title IX and to write features that stepped back a little from the action.

I would encourage the student journalists to go a little further behind the scenes. Who won or lost is important to note but so is helping the reader to understand how these developments occurred, either by analyzing the team’s or a player’s record over the season and interviewing the players and coaches about the journey, not just the result.

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Best Online Newspaper

Judge: Hasani Gittens

Hasani Gittens is a deputy editor for THE CITY. His priors include senior news editor for NBCNews.com and managing editor for NBCNewYork.com. He began his career as a copy kid at the New York Post and is a proud product of Baruch College’s newspaper, The Ticker, as well as the student magazine Dollars $ Sense.

Best Online Newspaper, Citywide First Place Winner:

Stuyvesant High School, The Spectator.

www.stuyspec.com/

Looking at The Spectator, the word that comes to mind is talent. The online newspaper is laid out very cleanly and the headlines pop like they were written by professionals. The stories are accompanied by photos and illustrations that could easily be in commercial publications. Looking deeper, the stories are very well written and cover a great array of topics relevant to students: The stress of school, the stress of finding community, the stress of being located next to an international terrorism event — and still sticking up for the life of the accused. The staff should relax and know they’ve done a fine job.

Best Online Newspaper, Citywide Second Place Winner:

Francis Lewis High School, Francis Lewis News.

flhsnews.com/

The Francis Lewis High School newspaper fulfills the number one job of a school paper: Give the student community information they need to better their lives. With a crisp design and clear headlines, their range of articles from cafeteria and building news, to community service and science fair pieces, to a story about bus service with a beautifully evocative lede, they are everything you like to see in a student publication.

Best Online Newspaper, New Newspaper First Place Winner:

Pace High School, Pacer NYC.

pacernyc.com/

The Pacer pops with great photos, a compelling layout and a heavy mix of stories about sports and school life. It’s evident that a lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes and as a nascent newspaper they are on track to being truly great one day. I am not sure though if the student body president should be on staff!

Best Online Newspaper, New Newspaper Second Place Winner:

Queens School of Inquiry, QSInquirer.

qsinquirer.com/

The QSInquirer has a sleek but sparse look and crisp writing that give it a classy appeal. The reporting is well done but seems to lean heavily on student opinion and quotes — which is the right way to be thinking about journalism. The voice of the people should be the loudest. Mixing in some deeper investigations in the future will make this a newspaper that’s tough to beat.

Remarks for the Category:

All of the publications in this competition and their staffs should be proud of themselves because each of them had merit and were producing some quality student journalism. I am heartened to see that the next generation of reporters and editors is on the right track to be even better than the last.

March 10, 2023 Baruch College High School Journalism Conference Agenda and Workshop Schedule

Conference Check-In: 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Gather in Plenary Room for croissants and mini-muffins and instructions. 9:30 a.m. to 10:05 a.m.

Workshop Schedule

Room 1. Photojournalism Essentials with Adi Talwar 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Multimedia for Online Newspaper Reporting with Emily Johnson. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

—–

Room 2. Feature Story Ideas Incubator with Indrani Sen. 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Online Research and Information Verification for Journalists with Whitney Lee. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

—–

Room 3. Effective Sports Reporting Q&A with Randal Archibold and Vera Haller. 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Story Editing Strategies with Hasani Gittens. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

—–

Room 4. Locating Quality Sources and Proven Interviewing Techniques with Rebecca Ungarino. 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Google Tools For Journalists with Ashley Edwards. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

—–

Room 5. Limiting Legal and Ethical Lapses with Ruth Hochberger. 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Writing Compelling Ledes with Jere Hester. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

—–

Room 6. Common Reporting Errors and How to Avoid Them with Gisele Regatao. 10:10 a.m. until 11 a.m.

AND

Advisors’ Optional Meeting facilitated by Deborah Porterfield. 11:10 a.m. until Noon.

LUNCH AND PLENARY SESSIONS

High School Journalists’ Press Conference with NYS Senator John Liu, where the students ask the questions, with an introduction by Provost Linda Essig. 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Preparing For A Successful Journalism Career with Myles Miller. 1:40 p.m.-2:05 p.m.
Gearing Up For Your College Newspaper with Editors from Baruch College’s Independent Student Newspaper, The Ticker. 2:05 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
Baruch College’s Best in NYC Public High School Journalism “Newsies” Awards 2:30 p.m.-3 p.m.

Conference Presenter Bios

Randal C. Archibold is the sports editor of The New York Times. He joined the desk in July 2015, and helps coordinate and edit news and enterprise stories across a range of topics. Once in a while, he writes one, too. For five years, between 2010 and 2015, he was The Times’s bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico City. He wrote a lot about drugs but also social issues and once even [E1] [MOU2] [MOU3] [MOU4] a soap opera. Before beginning his assignment there in August 2010, he was a national correspondent based in Los Angeles. He covered a large swath of the southwestern United States and wrote extensively on the border and immigration, including Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration. He also did pieces on the lighter side, including the story of a fish in a desert. He joined the paper in 1998 as a reporter on the Metro staff and has written on a variety of subjects, including education and politics. He covered the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, writing a series on the residents of the damaged apartment building closest to the towers. His political reporting has included coverage of John Edwards’s 2004 presidential campaign and the 2005 New York City mayoral election. Before joining The New York Times, Mr. Archibold worked for five years at The Los Angeles Times as a reporter and editor, and before that, several places in California and New Jersey, many of which, sadly, no longer exist. Mr. Archibold graduated from Rutgers University and then spent several months studying history and Spanish in Panama, from which his parents immigrated. He considers himself a New Jerseyan living in exile in New York.

Professor Geanne Belton (first name pronounced “Jean”), a Baruch College journalism professor and an attorney, directs Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program, including the annual NYC High School Journalism Conference and the Newsies Best in NYC Public High School Journalism Competition. Professor Belton’s study of NYC High School Newspaper Prevalence was published in November 2022 and has brought substantial attention to the dearth of student newspapers in NYC public high schools, particularly among schools with the highest poverty rates and lowest graduation rates. The research report, “Haves and Have Nots: Newspaper Prevalence Among NYC Public High Schools,” is available here: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/hsjournalism/files/2022/11/Final-11-18-HS-Haves-Have-Nots-November-2022-Research-Report-1-3.pdf In her role as Director of Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program, Professor Belton designed and teaches a professional development certificate course for teachers to help high schools that don’t have student newspapers to launch newspapers. Professor Belton teaches media law and ethics and news literacy to Baruch College undergraduates. Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the National Law Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, Investor’s Business Daily, and many other newspapers, magazines and online publications under the byline Geanne Rosenberg. She was a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and served as vice chair of the board of directors of the Student Press Law Center. Professor Belton has a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a J.D. from Columbia University’s School of Law, where she was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Lara Bergen is the founder and director of Press Pass NYC, a nonprofit organization that helps New York City public schools start and sustain student newspaper programs. Before founding Press Pass NYC, Lara taught English and AP Literature at the Global Learning Collaborative High School in Manhattan, where her experience working with students to start that school’s first newspaper served as her inspiration. Lara has also had a long career on the children’s book side of publishing, as both an editor and author of over a hundred books for children and middle-grade readers. Lara is a JEA Certified Journalism Educator and has a Master’s in the Teaching of English from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She currently serves on the steering committees of the NYC Youth Journalism Coalition and the New York City Civics Coalition.

Judah Duke is in his sophomore year at Baruch College, majoring in journalism with a double minor in computer science and environmental sustainability. His high school didn’t have a student newspaper, but he was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook for three years. Now, he is a senior staff writer and copy editor for The Ticker. He also works as an auditor at the Marriott Hotel on East 24th Street.

Linda Essig, MFA, Ph.D., was appointed Baruch College’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs on July 1, 2021. She previously served as dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) where she was responsible for nine academic departments, four centers, and the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery. Prior to Cal State LA, Dr. Essig was director of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Programs for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University (ASU) and founding director of its School of Theatre and Film. She also served as chair of the Department of Theatre & Drama and director of University Theatre at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Essig has authored four books, numerous articles and book chapters on both arts entrepreneurship and theatrical lighting design.

Emanuela Gallo is a senior at Macaulay Honors at Baruch College. She is double majoring in journalism and political science, and double minoring in New York City studies and Italian. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of The Ticker, Baruch’s independent and student-run newspaper. In prior years, she acted as the newspaper’s news editor and undergraduate student government correspondent. Emanuela interned at Fox News in the spring of 2022, writing copy for clips of daytime political and business news. She has also been active in student life as an orientation leader, first-year seminar peer mentor, and co-president and director of mentorship for the Baruch Pre-Law Society. Emanuela was also the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper and then continued her love for writing in college. She strongly encourages current high school journalists to do the same!

Ashley Alese Edwards is the U.S. Partnerships Manager at Google. She is passionate about diversity in news media and has promoted this through her involvement in media literacy and inclusion programs. Before Google, she worked as a journalist at Refinery29, Mic, the New York Daily News, and PIX11 News. She currently has her own blog, Aisle One, which is dedicated to natural hair and beauty.

Caryl Anne Francia is a senior at Baruch College and the business editor of The Ticker, the college’s independent student-run newspaper. She majors in journalism and creative writing and minors in Japanese. Francia attended the New York City High School Journalism Conference in 2018 as a senior at Francis Lewis High School, at which she was the co-editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper. She applauds the work done by all of this year’s attendees and congratulates the nominees for the “Newsies!” awards. She encourages students to discover what they are passionate about as they hone their writing skills beyond high school, as she did with The Ticker.

Vera Haller is a professor of Journalism at Baruch College and the current department chair. She is also an active freelance journalist, covering New York City as well as foreign stories for outlets including PRX’s The World, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and the Thomson-Reuters Foundation. Before joining Baruch, she worked as a reporter and editor at Newsday, Reuters and The Associated Press.

Jere Hester is the director of projects and partnerships at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He most recently served as the founding editor-in-chief of The City, an award-winning nonprofit news site that serves New Yorkers through hard-hitting journalism. Prior roles include founding director of the award-winning NY City News Service, New York Daily News city editor, and editor of Downtown Express. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, CNN, NBC News, and other outlets. Hester, the author of “Raising a Beatle Baby,” is a lifelong resident of Brooklyn.

Ruth Hochberger has had a rich and rewarding career as a journalist and a professor. A lawyer, she began her career as a criminal defense lawyer for The Legal Aid Society in Manhattan, and then found her true calling as a legal journalist, as the first feature reporter for The New York Law Journal, a daily newspaper for the legal community. She conceived, reported, and wrote profiles, analyses of legislation, and accounts of significant court decisions. She initiated and spearheaded a division for the Law Journal that published an array of monthly practical newsletters for attorneys, Leader Publications. Returning to the daily paper, she was named the first managing editor, and subsequently was named editor-in-chief, where she served for 12 years. Following her tenure at the Law Journal, she entered academia, where she taught a seminar at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism on “Covering Courts, Trials and the Justice System,” as well as “Media Ethics,” “Journalistic Inquiry,” and “Law and Mass Communications” to graduate and undergraduate students at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. She joined the City University’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at its inception and designed and taught the required course in “Legal and Ethical Issues in Journalism,” as well as an elective in “Journalistic Judgment,” over 17 years. For three years, she taught a law course in “Media Law” at New York Law School. She was the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, in Bryn Mawr PA, and graduated from Barnard College and Boston College Law School, where she was on the Law Review.

Emily H. Johnson, a professor of journalism at Baruch College, is an independent multimedia journalist who has reported in East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and New York. Her body of work includes photography, radio, video, and writing. She graduated from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism (CUNY) in 2010. She currently lives in Brooklyn but continues to report abroad.

Whitney Lee is currently the Helen Bernstein Librarian for Periodicals and E-Resources at the New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. In this role, she coordinates the selection and management of periodicals (newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, zines, and small press publications) across research libraries and works to raise public awareness of this collection. Prior to her role at the NYPL, Whitney was a research specialist at NBC News, and before that, a reference associate at New York University’s Bobst Library. She has also held positions as a researcher for two New York newspapers, Newsday and the New York Daily News. In her various newsroom roles, she supported reporters, editors, and producers by running background checks, locating sources, verifying information, finding statistics on a range of topics, and more.

John C. Liu is a New York State Senator representing a broad area of northeast Queens. He is chairperson of the Senate’s committee on New York City Education and also serves on the committees of Education, Finance, Higher Education, Judiciary, Rules and Transportation. John was Comptroller of the City of New York (2010-2013) and a New York City Councilmember (2002-2009). In 2013, John was a candidate for Mayor of New York City, in lieu of running for re-election as Comptroller. Currently, John teaches municipal finance and public policy in Master’s programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Columbia University. The 43rd Comptroller of New York City, John Liu established an impressive record as the chief financial officer for 8.4 million residents and overseeing municipal government with an annual budget of $70 billion. John saved taxpayers $5 billion through rigorous audits of City agencies, detailed scrutiny of contracts with private companies, and refinancing of $20 billion of outstanding City bond debt. During his four-year term of office, he achieved an enviable total investment return, increasing the City’s pension asset portfolio to $150 billion. John created the nationally acclaimed online application “CheckbookNYC.com” providing unprecedented transparency in government spending. He facilitated economic development and new job creation with acceleration of City capital projects, capturing low-interest rates in the bond markets. Always emphasizing that “it’s not just about numbers, it’s about people,” John Liu championed fairness and equality. An early and staunch opponent of stop-and-frisk tactics, John highlighted the risks to communities and taxpayers alike due to damaged police-community relations. John presented daily-updated M/WBE Report Cards for City agencies to monitor and encourage greater government contracting opportunities for minority entrepreneurs. John also proposed sound economic policies to create real economic growth and narrow the ever-widening wealth gap, protected wage standards and recouped back wages and fines on behalf of cheated workers from contractors who just don’t want to play by the rules, and exposed the billions of dollars in publicly-subsidized corporate welfare doled out by the City that failed to deliver on promised new jobs and fair housing. He published numerous reports analyzing and issuing recommendations on a wide range of public priorities, including education and the need to take students beyond high school, affordable housing and family support, retirement security and protection of pension benefits, and the fiscal and social benefits of legalizing marijuana. Hailed as a “Trailblazer” and “Pioneer,” John Liu’s historic elections – as the first Asian American to win legislative office in New York and then the first to win citywide office – were milestones for Asian Americans in New York and across the nation. Although he wishes Asian Americans had been elected long before, John is honored to be the first and embraces the opportunity to broaden representation and public service. Prior to being elected to office, John worked in the private sector for 14 years as a professional actuary, most recently as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. John has drawn upon his real-world fiscal expertise to root out waste and mismanagement in government.

Myles Miller is a duPont-Columbia, Edward R. Murrow and Emmy® Award-winning journalist who covers crime, the courts and general assignment news for WNBC-TV. He joined NBC’s flagship station in October 2019. Miller was a key component of NBC 4 New York’s award-winning COVID-19 coverage, honored in January, 2021 with the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “creat(ing) a 360 view in real time of the coronavirus pandemic, with courageous and thorough reporting on the virus’s explosion in New York City.” The duPont has long been recognized as the broadcast, documentary and online equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, also awarded by Columbia University. Prior to joining NBC 4 New York, Miller served as deputy press secretary at the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and as a senior advisor to the Fire Commissioner. Miller’s prior television reporting experience includes three years spent at NY1 and Spectrum Networks where he served as chief investigative reporter from 2017-2019 and earned a New York Emmy® in 2018. From 2015-2017, he worked as a law enforcement reporter at WPIX-TV, where he was part of the team that won the 2017 Emmy® Award for Best Morning Newscast. He has also worked as a correspondent for WCBS Newsradio 880 AM, where he was part of the team that won a 2017 Edward R. Murrow Award for “Overall Excellence”. He has covered major Tri-State stories throughout this time, including the Chelsea terrorist bombing, the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the mass shooting at Bronx Lebanon Hospital and the deadly West Side terror attack. Additionally, Miller has worked as a national correspondent at Reuters, covering the mid-Atlantic states and as the digital director at HOT97, where he oversaw their growth as a digital leader in local radio. He was also a White House correspondent for The Daily, where he traveled across the country with President Barack Obama, covering landmark stories including the death of Osama bin Laden, the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act and the 2012 presidential campaign. Miller started his career at the New York Daily News, in middle school, where as a part of a summer program and later as an intern, he covered city politics and government for their suburban newspapers, Bronx Boro, Queens and Brooklyn News. Throughout his career in journalism, his writing has also been featured in the New York Post, FOXNews.com, The Daily Caller and Women’s Wear Daily. He is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Association of Black Journalists, the New York Press Club and the National Forensics League.

Deborah Porterfield is the advisor for the Bronx River News, a high school paper that she helped launch last year. She also teaches U.S. History and oversees the special education department at Bronx River High School. Before becoming a teacher, she worked as an editor and writer at various regional and national outlets, including USA Today and Nickelodeon.

Gisele Regatão teaches journalism and podcasting at Baruch College and she is a former executive producer and editor for the public radio stations WNYC and KCRW. In the past year, she has reported on many issues, including Venezuelan migrants in New York and the avocado boom in Peru for the national public radio show The World. She has also produced and directed the fiction podcast series “a hit dog will holler” for the podcast network Radiotopia. Some of her previous pieces include a long investigative piece on a fake art scheme for the national public radio show Reveal, two in-depth pieces on why campaigns fail to get Latinos to vote for the national public radio show Latino USA, and a story on why accents are a taboo in broadcast media for Columbia Journalism Review.

Indrani Sen is a senior features editor at Fortune. Previously, she was the culture editor at The New York Times Opinion section; an editorial director at Medium; and Quartz’s culture and lifestyle editor. She started her journalism career in local newspapers in Massachusetts, including her local newspaper, The Cambridge Chronicle, and The Bay State Banner, a newspaper that covers Boston’s Black and Latino communities. She was a reporter at Newsday, covering politics, planning, crime, and breaking news; and then a freelance food writer. As a journalism teacher, Indrani was a longtime adjunct professor at the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. At CUNY she edited Voices of New York, a publication showcasing the best work from the city’s immigrant press, and she co-edited a New York Times hyperlocal news blog focused on Fort Greene, Brooklyn, with a staff of student journalists and community contributors. She also taught journalism to high school and middle school students at the Bronx Academy of Letters.

Adi Talwar is a New York City-based photojournalist with a background in design, engineering and art. For over a decade, Adi’s photography has centered around civic issues, communities and individuals. He is a regular contributor to CityLimits.org. Adi has also been published in the Norwood News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, WNYC, MetroFocus, and Gothamist, to name a few. Over the years, Adi has participated in solo and group exhibitions. Adi was a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes its Own) recipient in 2020 and has received various awards for his photojournalism work.

Newsies Best in NYC Public High School Journalism Judges’ Bios

Conference Assistants’ Bios (as provided by each assistant in their own words.)

Cesar R. Bustamante Jr. is a Filipino from Queens and a board member of the Deadline Club, the NYC Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists. He was a former media monitoring manager at South West News Service’s 72Point Inc. Prior to that, he was at the New York Daily News for three years, moving up the ranks of part-time producer to digital content editor. CUNY J-School alum, comic book nerd and journalism proponent, he was once told that he “exude(s) geeky competence” and has been adding that in his bios ever since.

Emanuela Gallo is a senior at Macaulay Honors at Baruch College. She is double majoring in journalism and political science, and minoring in New York City studies and Italian. She currently serves as the editor-in-chief of The Ticker, Baruch’s independent and student-run newspaper. In prior years, she acted as the newspaper’s news editor and undergraduate student government correspondent. Emanuela interned at Fox News in the spring of 2022, writing copy for clips of daytime political and business news. She has also been active in student life as an orientation leader, first-year seminar peer mentor, and co-president and director of mentorship for the Baruch Pre-Law Society. Emanuela was also the editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper and then continued her love for writing in college. She strongly encourages current high school journalists to do the same!

Atifah Osmani is a junior majoring in Political Science and double minoring in Philosophy and Marketing at Baruch College. She is on the Pre-Law track and has been involved in extracurriculars to further her legal aspirations as an IDEAL Scholar at Fordham Law School and Deputy Field Organizer for former Congresswoman Maloney. Additionally, Atifah is a proud Bengali-American who looks to embrace inclusivity and culture as Vice President of Baruch’s Bangladesh Student Association and former Co-Marketing Chair of Baruch’s Our Body in All Sizes.

Amy Pulster, 21, is currently a junior at Baruch College. She majors in Graphic Communication, and minors in New Media Arts. She is born and raised in Manhattan in New York City, and currently lives there with her parents and three siblings. She enjoys graphic design, video editing, reading, spending time with friends, and trying out new places to eat. She has begun her career in her school clubs. She is the VP of Graphics for UNICEF at Baruch and is the TikTok video editor for the Ticker.

Gabriel Rivera is a senior at Baruch College, double majoring in journalism and political science. He’s the Copy Chief and former Science & Technology Editor for Baruch’s independent, student-run newspaper, The Ticker. He’s also written for other publications such as Baruch magazine Dollars & Sense, The Bond Buyer and DC Report.

Emily Sauchelli is a Master’s student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, CUNY, in Manhattan. She is studying health and science reporting and visual journalism. She is a part-time program assistant for Baruch College’s High School Journalism program and enjoys bringing awareness about this program to NYC high schools. In addition to being a reporter one day, she hopes to interweave journalism education and activism into her career.

Kamilla Sharipova is a senior at Baruch College studying Computer Information Systems – Data Analytics & a minor in Mathematics. She is the Photography Editor of The Ticker, the Baruch College school newspaper. She is a self-taught photographer, practicing it as a hobby and more recently starting to take classes and practicing it professionally. You can find some of her work at the following link: https://www.instagram.com/fotograph.junkie/

Jessica Taft is a recent graduate of the Macaulay Honors College at Baruch. Since graduating Magna Cum Laude and receiving BBA in Finance with a double minor in Journalism and the Interdisciplinary Study of New York in December 2022, she has been studying for the LSAT exam. As an aspiring attorney, Jessica is interested in pursuing a career in Public Policy and Legislation, having gained experience in the public sector through internships with her most recent position as an Immigration Affairs intern at Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office. Her hobbies include tutoring students grades K-12 in the core subjects and Spanish, painting, and kick boxing.

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Posted Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

We look forward to welcoming New York City Public High School Student Journalists and Newspaper Advisors to Baruch College’s 2023 High School Journalism Conference. The Conference will feature journalism skills workshops and a plenary press conference.

Thanks to the Baruch College High School Journalism Program’s partnership with the Google News Initiative, and additional grant support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the David and Katherine Moore Family Foundation, and the Harnisch Foundation, Baruch College’s High School Journalism Program is able to to offer this event free of charge. Continental breakfast and a sit-down lunch are included.

Registration spaces are filling up quickly and we are almost fully booked. For further information, please contact Prof. Geanne Belton: geanne.belton@baruch.cuny.edu

————

Posted Wednesday, January 4, 2023

We are pleased to be accepting submissions for 2023’s New York City high school newspaper awards – The Newsies! The competition – which is free of charge – is open to all NYC public high schools.

The entry deadline is January 31, 2023.

Submission instructions are available here:

Submission Guidelines For 2024 Baruch College NYC High School Newspaper Awards (The Newsies!)

We very much look forward to seeing and acknowledging the outstanding journalism being produced within New York City’s public high school communities. We welcome entries from new NYC public high school newspapers as well as school newspapers that were in existence prior to 2020.

Winners will be announced during Baruch College’s March 10, 2023 NYC Public High School Journalism Conference at Baruch College.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2023! — Professor Geanne Belton

Posted Thursday, September 15, 2022

We are thrilled to be moving back to an in-person format for Baruch College’s Annual NYC Public High School Journalism Conference!

Please save the date: Friday, March 10, 2023.

Our conference will be held at Baruch College, in Midtown Manhattan, in our William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus Conference Center, from 10 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. on March 10, 2023. The event will include journalism workshops, a plenary press conference, and the Baruch College Best in NYC Public High School Newsies Awards.

The event is free of charge for registered attendees and coffee and lunch will be provided, thanks to the Baruch College High School Journalism Program’s partnership with the Google News Initiative and additional funding from the David and Katherine Moore Family Foundation.

NYC public high schools that have school newspapers are invited to bring delegations consisting of eight people per school, including one teacher or school administrator and seven 9th, 10th and 11th graders per school. Registration will open in early 2023.

Baruch College Newsies Awards January 31, 2023 Entry Deadline

We are moving to a calendar year format for Baruch College’s annual best in NYC public high school journalism competition, the Newsies Awards.

This year, as we make that transition, we will consider work produced and published in NYC public high school newspapers from September 2, 2021 through December 2022. Winners will be announced at Baruch College’s March 10, 2023 conference.

This year, in addition to award certificates, thanks to funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, we will be providing monetary honoraria to teacher-advisors whose school entries win first and second place Newsies awards to use in support of their high school newspapers and to incentivize and encourage school newspaper student journalists with staff parties, newspaper supplies, meeting snacks, etc.

We also are creating a new, separate division for new NYC public high school newspapers created and launched after 2020.

Categories for Baruch College’s best in NYC public high school journalism Newsies awards include best online newspaper, feature writing, illustration/comics/political cartoon, multimedia news reporting, national/world news with a local lens, opinion/editorial writing, photojournalism, school news, and sports writing.

In future years, we will be on a calendar year schedule for Newsies entries, so eligible entries for the 2024 competition will have been published between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023.

Register for the Spring 2023 “Launching a High School Newspaper” Online Certificate Course

Posted Friday, June 24, 2022

Registration is now open for the fully online, five-session Baruch College Launching a High School Newspaper CTLE certificate course. This course is for NYC public high school teachers who would like to start new high school newspapers in high schools that do not have newspapers. The course, which runs on Monday afternoons from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., is offered free of charge to NYC public high school teachers who have the support of their high schools to launch new student newspapers in 2022-23.

Please see https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/hsjournalism/starting-a-high-school-newspaper-for-teacher-advisors/ for more details.

Please sign up here if you’re a NYC public high school teacher interested in launching a NYC high school newspaper:

Contact Form

Baruch College's High School Journalism Program

Sixteen New NYC High School Newspapers So Far!

The 2023 Baruch College High School Journalism Program’s Best In NYC Public High School Journalism Newsies! Winners (with Winning Submission URL’s and Judges’ Bios & Comments)

March 10, 2023 Baruch College High School Journalism Conference Agenda and Workshop Schedule

This year, as we make that transition, we will consider work produced and published in NYC public high school newspapers from September 2, 2021 through December 2022. Winners will be announced at Baruch College’s March 10, 2023 conference.

Register for the Spring 2023 “Launching a High School Newspaper” Online Certificate Course

For further information, please contact Professor Geanne Belton at geanne.belton@baruch.cuny.edu.

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