Best NYC High School Online Newspaper Edition
Judge: Jere Hester
First Place Winner: The Classic, Townsend Harris High School at Queens College
The staff of The Classic produced a powerful series of articles detailing the allegations of multiple former students accusing three Townsend Harris teachers of sexual misconduct. After The Classic revealed that one of the teachers remained on campus despite a school investigator’s report recommending he be fired, the educator was removed from the school community. The staff’s dogged and fearless reporting, which got action on an issue of great importance to Townsend Harris and beyond, epitomized the strength of a stellar news organization that more than earned Best NYC Public High School Newspaper honors for 2021.
Second Place: The Spectator, Stuyvesant High School
The staff of The Spectator not only published pertinent stories on the pandemic’s impact on the school community, from changing COVID-19 protocols to expanding mental health concerns, the team also reached back with a package of articles on the last huge crisis to upend Stuyvesant: 9/11. The impressive array of pieces marking the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks offered insight from the alumni at the center of the 2001 tragedy via current students facing another period of unprecedented challenges.
Overall Remarks:
This year’s batch of entries showcases not only the dedication, persistence and grit of student journalists working under difficult circumstances but underscores the vital role of school news organizations in delivering crucial information, demanding accountability and reflecting their communities. The school news organizations displayed grace under pressure, telling an evolving story encompassing everything from the effects of remote learning to an uneasy return to classes to concerns about the uncertainty ahead. The entrants served their schools’ communities very well when most needed and made a powerful argument for supporting high school news organizations.
Bio:
Jere Hester is the director of projects and partnerships at the 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 NYCity News Service, city editor of The New York Daily News 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.
Features
Judge: Gisele Regatão
First Place Winner: “Reassessing assessments: Harrisites talk testing and cheating during remote learning,” Jasmine Palma The Classic
This piece starts with a provocative premise: online learning made cheating more common. And right in the first paragraph, it also explains the broader implication of this phenomenon, which is the fact that students and administrators are reassessing what it means to test someone’s knowledge. The Classic used an innovative reporting method here, it distributed an anonymous survey to students in December. All of the quotes from students came from the survey, but the reporter also interviewed the school’s principal, several teachers and she used quotes from experts’ lectures to explain the roots and rationale of cheating. This is a great example of a feature that addresses a timely and pressing topic with solid reporting and excellent writing.
Overall Remarks:
Great features often tackle something we all know is happening, but we don’t know the how’s and why’s. That’s why data and original interviews are so important, they complement each other in explaining the reasons behind something. Who you talk to matters as well. Make sure to interview people from diverse backgrounds representing different points of view. When writing your feature, start with the most interesting part and also make your case for why people should care. Your writing should be clear, concise and straightforward, avoid long sentences and long paragraphs. Pursue topics that you care about but remember that the goal is always to serve the audience.
Bio:
Gisele Regatão is a professor of journalism at Baruch College and she also teaches podcasting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before that, Gisele worked in management positions at the public radio stations WNYC and KCRW for 15 years. Some of her recent stories include an investigation on an art fraud case for Reveal and a series on why campaigns fail to get Latinos to vote for Latino USA. Gisele also works with podcasters in her native Brazil, where she oversaw a fiction series for kids about the adventures of two corals in Pernambuco and a journalistic project about water and sewage in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Her new fiction podcast series is coming out in March on Radiotopia Presents.
Illustration/Comics/Political Cartoon
Judge: Jensine Eckwall
First Place Winner: Veronika Lopatina’s Columbia Pride piece
Veronika’s work combines photography and digital illustration in a way that brings appealing characters and familiar real-life scenarios together. The use of dynamic perspective brings the viewer into the piece and straight down to the principal gesture, the outstretched hand. I’m interested to see how the artist continues to use digital image-making tools and what kind of worlds they bring us into.
Overall Remarks:
Illustration and newspaper cartooning are two tools that can be deftly used in support of journalism. Through drawing, an artist can illuminate an idea, taking it from the realm of concept and giving it visible form. It’s so important that young people engage in all forms of communication arts as they continue to evolve, either through new technologies or new standards, ideas and perspectives.
Bio:
Jensine Eckwall is a multidisciplinary illustrator and artist who specializes in book illustration. She is an educator at School of Visual Arts and The New School. Her second picture book, “Into the Goblin Market,” comes out in the fall from Tundra Books.
Multimedia News Reporting
Judge: Vera Haller
First Place Winner: “The Stuyvesant Perspective,” Aaron Visser and Maya Nelson, Stuyvesant High School
The episode “Jonah Kaye on the Uyghur Muslim Genocide” is a well-produced podcast on a serious topic. I appreciate the initiative that the students made to find an interview subject outside the school’s community, and the way in which the episode informs Stuyvesant students about foreign events, which is such an important role that journalists play in society. While the award is for this one episode, I did dip into the other episodes and came away impressed by the breadth and diversity of the topics covered. Well done.
Second Place Winner: “The Classic Podcast,” Townsend Harris High School
This podcast series deserves to be honored for its creative premise: students read their college essays that got them into their “dream” college and then are interviewed about what inspired them. The resulting podcasts are moving and inspirational.
Overall Remarks:
In the multimedia section, I have chosen to honor the impressive work in podcasting these high school journalists have produced. When producing podcasts, don’t be afraid to edit and shape your episodes so that the end product is always tightly focused and free of extraneous quotes that don’t move the story forward.
Bio:
Vera Haller, an associate professor, is chair of Baruch College’s Journalism Department. She is also an active freelance journalist, covering New York City news as well as foreign immigration stories. She writes for The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Thomson Reuters Foundation and has practiced all aspects of online journalism — from shooting and editing video and audio reports to producing large multimedia features.
National/World News with a Local Lens
Judge: Lonnie Isabel
First Place Winner: Clara Shapiro and Karen Zhang, The Spectator
Provocative and compelling material presented in a way that took readers directly inside the horrifying and despicable rise in violence against Asian Americans. This was done through the use of sometimes harrowing quotes from victims and visual detail. It takes on the volatile topic of racial violence by examining its roots, and, perhaps more importantly, its impact on the survivors and their families.
Second Place Winner: Ariana Rosales, Francis Lewis News
An amazingly clever story idea executed exceptionally. An election, even in the height of a pandemic, needs election workers. A large percentage of election workers are elderly, as the story details, and a significant number of them declined to work because of COVID-19. In the void, more youthful election workers, including high school students, are stepping up. This feature story combines a hotly contested election, COVID-19, activist young voters and the experience of the high school election workers most effectively.
Overall Remarks:
This is the closest contest I have judged. All five entries are winners. Strong reporting was evident throughout. Reporters asked challenging questions and your stories reflected that. The biggest differences were in writing and presentation. Remember to assume, especially when you are writing an intricate or technical story, that your readers bring virtually no knowledge. Some may of course. But that cannot be assumed. Another tip: in survey stories, where lots of people are interviewed about the same thing, sometimes less is more. Avoid repetitions and prune out quotes or anecdotes that don’t have much impact or veer off the point a bit.
Opinion/Editorial Writing
Judge: Robert A. George
First Place Winner: “Shakespeare and Sokdae: Reforming Stuyvesant’s Eurocentric Curricula,” The Spectator Editorial Board, Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant Editorial Board’s “Shakespeare and Skoda: Reforming Stuyvesant’s Eurocentric Curricula” is a textbook example of editorial board writing. It well lays out the issue, but — in a manner where even professional editorial boards might take note — provides vital historical context on the current curriculum and how it reflects where Stuyvesant, New York and the nation have come from. Best of all, the editorial lays out a pathway forward in striving to add diversity to the school’s classes — while respecting what came previously.
Second Place: “Speak Up, FLHS — Sexual Assault Victims Cannot Wait Any Longer,” Erin Mui, Rosanne Wong and Rachel Kim, Frances Lewis High School
By definition, opinion columns are directed by, well, opinion! However, the strongest ones are those that supplement a voice with facts and independent reporting. That entails an author going out and speaking with people, getting insightful perspectives from individuals willing to go on the record. By doing this — speaking with students and faculty — writers Mui, Wong and Kim tackled a sensitive topic in a smart, nuanced and persuasive manner. This column was especially effective in its well-founded criticism of the school’s failure to address issues of consent in health classes that focused more on sexuality. The authors also made a strong point in reminding school administrators that as important as it was — especially in the post-George Floyd moment — to recognize racial and ethnic communities, it shouldn’t come at the expense of a serious social issue (sexual assault) that has, tragically, been part of the human condition for time immemorial.
Third Place Winner: “Living and Dying in America,” Kaya Miller, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics
Passion is an important element in much opinion writing. An author needs to grab the reader and make that person understand why this topic is must be paid attention to. Kaya Miller brings that passion to her to an issue that continues to dominate America’s headlines — the deaths of unarmed people of color at the hands of police officers. Miller’s column stands out from a host of others on the same topic because there are two targets here. She trains her focus, not just on police behavior, but on how the media reports — or fails to report — key details in police shootings. One might not necessarily agree with Miller’s assessment of the Daunte Wright and Ma’Khia Bryant particular incidents, but her call for the reader to bring a more skeptical eye to similar incidents — and all news stories, for that matter — is a vitally important message in an era where Americans of all ages are overwhelmed with information and opinions.
Overall Remarks:
“Editorial” and “opinion column” are two often easily confused terms in journalism. The former is supposed to describe an official view of a newspaper, periodical or other media entity. These are, for the most part, unsigned because they reflect an institutional opinion, rather than an individual one. The tone and voice are ideally to be more distant and authoritative than a personal, bylined column. That doesn’t mean that it should be devoid of supporting facts or clear perspective.
Photojournalism
Judge: Emily Johnson
First Place Winner: “Francis Lewis College and Career Center Hosts Decision Day Celebration in Person,” Rosanne Wong, Francis Lewis High School
Rosanne Wong captured the poignant joy on display at this “Decision Day” event, where graduating seniors celebrated the colleges they planned to attend while reuniting on school grounds for the first time since the pandemic closed it down over a year earlier. It’s a simple but powerful portrait series: the T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with school logos are a colorful visual signifier of the students’ hopeful futures, while the masks are a reminder of the senior year the pandemic stolen from them. The captions are detailed and well-written.
Overall Remarks:
There were not many entries this year as the pandemic took its toll on in-person classes and events, but we look forward to having the usual robust selection next year! Some general advice to high school photojournalists: It can be tempting to sit back and shoot photos from a distance. But don’t forget about the “journalist” part of the word “photojournalist.” Get in there and talk to people, and don’t be afraid to get right up in their faces while you’re shooting! The closer you are, the stronger your photos will be — and you need to get their full names for your captions anyway. Showing people the pictures you’ve taken of them is a great way to break the ice.
School News
Judge: Michael Elsen-Rooney
First Place Winner: Brandon Yam, Rosanne Wong and Rachel Kim, Francis Lewis High School
This piece met the highest calling of education journalism, in my view: clearly illustrating how school policies affect the lives of actual students, with a laser-focus on equity and the most vulnerable students. From the opening anecdote, the authors vividly set up the stakes of the school’s new camera-on rule with the story of a student whose circumstances made that policy very problematic. I was hooked from the start. The rest of the story deftly guides the reader with nuance and sensitivity through the pros and cons of this rule. We get a clear understanding of the dilemma teachers and administrators are facing with spotty camera engagement, and why this policy was an appealing option. But the student interviews revealed in compelling and personal terms the problem with the rule. I found the section about students with body insecurity having to participate in online phys-ed classes really new and interesting. The authors also meticulously examined the administration’s defense of the rule — from the suggestion that students use a blurred background to the policy of granting “exemptions” to the camera-on rule — using student, teacher and expert voices to raise questions about those aspects of the rule as well. And, importantly, the authors kept a focus throughout on the potential equity implications, and the ways in which this rule might negatively impact “a huge population of our school that already goes unacknowledged.” The work also seems to have prompted policy change — with the principal issuing updated guidelines shortly after it was published. This was maybe the best single story I’ve read — from a student or professional publication — on the incredibly thorny camera question. Bravo!
Second Place Winner: Momoca Mairaj, Jenny Liu, Erin Lee, Talia Kahan, Morris Raskin & Karen Zhang, Stuyvesant High School
This is a really impressive effort to dig beneath the surface of one of the critical issues of heightened mental health challenges for students during the pandemic. The authors took a newsy peg — a Facebook post that generated a flood of comments — and used it as a jumping-off point to launch a significant data journalism project to measure students’ mental health. The five-point scale was a simple but effective way to try to gauge the effects of the pandemic (I might’ve liked a bit more explanation what each number on the scale was supposed to represent given that “mental health” can be a very slippery and subjective thing to quantify) and the breadth of the reporting shone through in the number and variety of student perspectives they were able to include in the story. I sometimes felt a little overwhelmed as a reader by the sheer volume of responses and wondered if it might have been more effective in places to focus in more on a smaller number of students and explain their situations in more detail, but too many sources is a good problem to have. I also really appreciated the attention to some of the structural issues at play: teachers acting in isolation and not realizing the impact of significant workloads, limited formal opportunities for students to raise complaints with teachers and the constraints of AP classes. I finished this story with a more nuanced understanding of both the direct impact of heavy workloads on student mental health and why it’s still so difficult to dislodge that culture at Stuyvesant. Bravo!
Overall Remarks:
Dear student journalists,
What a pleasure to read your fine work from the past year. Your stories offered a valuable window into the issues that consumed students’ lives over the past year: mental health challenges, unsustainable workloads, and the many tradeoffs and limitations of remote school. I came away with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what it was like to be a New York City student during this tumultuous year — something I often didn’t get from reading professional journalism on schools, which often took a bird’s eye view or focused on the flashy political battles, rather than illuminating the lives of students. Bravo!
Here are a couple of really positive themes from all the stories I read:
• So much of your work not only illustrated important and tricky problems — but also did the often more difficult work of examining possible solutions. It’s sometimes not as glamorous or simple to examine how to solve a really complicated problem, and professional journalists often don’t even attempt it. But in so many of your stories, you rolled up your sleeves and waded through what it would take to tackle some of these issues, even if the answers weren’t simple or clear-cut. I think it was especially important and admirable that you took that approach during a year that was so dispiriting and demoralizing in so many ways. The fact your journalism continued to weave in optimism and solutions is something to be applauded — and something you shouldn’t give up.
• A great balance of sources. Almost all the stories I read centered the experiences of students, which is how it should be. But there was also a great use of supplementary sources: teachers and administrators who spoke to some of the educational context behind these policies, and outside experts who broadened the story. Well done!
• And a piece of feedback: I read a lot of excellent and clear writing, which is more than half the battle. But keep looking for ways to make your stories more engaging and absorbing for readers. Start with an anecdote to draw readers in. Vary your sentence structure. Keep quotes short — paraphrase the less important parts, and save the quotes for the juiciest, most compelling bites. And don’t be afraid to punch up the emotion or outrage in your writing if the story warrants it.
Sports
Judge: Kristie Ackert
First Place Winner: “Will There Be PSAL Sports During COVID?” Ariana Rosales, Francis Lewis News
I chose, “Will There Be PSAL Sports During COVID?” by Ariana Rosales of Francis Lewis High School as the winner. It was a tough choice, but I really liked the lede to her story and how it drew the reader into the school’s athletics. It was a way of showing what was missing because of the pandemic. She went on to show us the people it was affecting in sports and how they were impacted by the loss of their teams, games and sports.
Second Place Winner: “A Goodbye to Senior Seasons,” Aki Yamaguchi, The Spectator
The runner-up was also a look at what was missing in, “A Goodbye to Senior Seasons” by Aki Yamaguchi of Stuyvesant High School. In general, I think young writers should stay away from first-person, but these are extraordinary times. The author introduced the story with what was lost by an entire class, including the athletes and the newspaper staff.
Overall Remarks:
I am impressed by the creativity of all of the entries. With sports being sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic (and now a labor dispute for those of us who cover baseball) it’s been a stretch to find good stories to write. All of the entries were good stories and creative approaches to sports writing. Sports writing is just writing about people who play, work in or around sports. It’s important to remember that you are not writing about the event or the game, your focus is always the people. The sport, the game, the event is just the setting. The focus doesn’t always have to be the star or the leading scorer, the player who set up the winning play or the player who scored their first touchdown of the season. The way to find the best stories is through reporting: talk to as many people around the team and game as you can, listen to the way they talk about the game, team and players and find the one at the center of the story you think would be the most interesting to your friends or family. When I first started, I would imagine that I was trying to describe it in writing for my best friend from high school. It’s obviously important to have the fundamental elements of “what, where, when and how,” in your stories but the “who,” is what your readers will relate to. Statistics, scores and plays are just ways to help draw a deeper, more complete picture of the people at the center of the story.
Bio:
Kristie Ackert is a veteran sports reporter and sports columnist at The New York Daily News.
