Dozens of students, teachers and parents from the Santa Clarita Valley gathered at the Valencia High School auditorium Thursday to honor excellence in student journalism.
The Signal’s second SCV High School/Junior High School Journalism Awards recognized compelling works of journalism in the areas of news, sports, opinion, photography, video, design, website and social media.
“The quality of all these entries were unbelievable,” said Russ Briley, The Signal’s executive vice president of community affairs. “We’re just going to keep growing this bigger and bigger. Kids seem to enjoy it and we want to keep journalism alive and this is one way of doing it.”
Briley chose to start the awards last year after coming to The Signal from The Ventura County Star, where the junior high school and high school awards were a staple of the paper.
“It was one of the best things we did there and I wanted to incorporate that into The Signal,” he said.
In total, The Signal received 144 entries from six schools in the valley.
“The thing that impressed me most about this year is last year we only had one opinion article submitted and this year we had 11,” Briley said. “It was all on current topics, the political climate and even went down to the local city council.”
Shauna Koskie, Rancho Pico Junior High School’s journalism advisor and eighth grade English teacher, said she encouraged all of her students to enter into this year’s contest. In total, the school submitted approximately 35 entries.
“This is such a great opportunity because it helps us feel like we are part of something bigger,” Koskie said. “To be recognized in this platform helps them connect to the larger community at large.”
Jaeun Park and Riley Villiers-Furze, editors-in-chief of West Ranch High School’s The Paw Print, both won first prize for Design and General Excellence and said they appreciated the positive feedback on their hard work.
“We wanted to get a judgment of what we do and it’s nice to get a professional perspective on our work,” Park said.
Canyon High School student Elise Reyes also won first prize, along with fellow students Clara Chung and Shahira Ellaboudy, for her work on the school’s magazine.
“I think it’s pretty great recognition for us,” she said. “It was our first year entering and our second year doing a magazine.”
Rancho Pico Junior High School students Nicole Gutierrez, who won first prize for her column, and Iman Baber, who won first prize for her opinion, both expressed their feelings of pride for having their articles recognized.
“It makes me feel like achieved something great and I appreciate it,” Baber said.
Marlow Weisman, a drama, creative writing, film and journalism teacher at Albert Einstein Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences, expressed his gratitude that his students were able to enter a local competition.
“Einstein is proud to participate with the other Hart District schools,” he said. “The awards sponsored by The Signal are a great encourager for the students.”
Taggart Lee, a film and photo teacher at Canyon High School, agreed that the local journalism awards are “a fantastic idea.”
“I hope that the awards would encourage them that if they really research a story in-depth and find a unique point of view, then they can achieve anything,” he said.
The full list of winners include:
Junior High School Winners
News
Albert Einstein Academy: Timothy Aquino
Series or Project
Albert Einstein Academy: Timothy Aquino
Sports
Rancho Pico Junior High: Jake Fuller, Jessamine Jin and Cody Martzke
Opinion
Rancho Pico Junior High: Iman Baber and Ashley Kwon
Column
Rancho Pico Junior High: Jessamine Jin, Oliva Abraham and Nicole Gutierrez
Review
Rancho Pico Junior High: Jessamine Jin and Lucas Cohen
Feature
Albert Einstein Academy: Justin Jimenez and Shayna Tilles
News Photography
Rancho Pico Junior High: Caitlin Tang
Feature Photography
Albert Einstein Academy: Justin Jimenez
Sports Photography
Rancho Pico Junior High: Seabrijn Huston
Social Media
Rancho Pico Junior High: Jessamine Jin and Olivia Abraham
Cartoon
Albert Einstein Academy: Audrey Sohn, Katt Gonzales and Mckaena Flynn
Graphics
Rancho Pico Junior High: Timothy Kang
High School Winners
News (tie)
Canyon High School: Clara Chung
West Ranch High School: Jaeun Park and Sarah Castillo
Series or Project
Albert Einstein Academy: Nicholas Jadidian and Jared Poblete
Series or Project Video
Saugus High School: Jake Shick and Maison Des Champs
Sports
Saugus High School: Riley Maiden
Sports Video
Saugus High School: Maison Des Champs
Opinion
Saugus High School: Sean O’Connell
Column
Saugus High School: Bethany Farnell
Review
West Ranch High School: Sarah Castillo
Feature
West Ranch High School: Kiana Quick
News Photography
Saugus High School: Arjan Walia
Feature Photography
Canyon High School: Matthew Guerra
Sports Photography
Canyon High School: Matthew Guerra
Website
Saugus High School: Danny Diaz
Video
Saugus High School: Maison Des Champs
Saugus High School: Kelly Turner and Danny Diaz
West Ranch High School: Skyler Brigmann, Matthew Yahata, Moriah Hayes, Conner Williams, Johanna Jenneman, Max Lin and Joel Yoon
Social Media
Saugus High School: Danny Diaz and Owen Derry
Cartoon
Saugus High School: Mari Stoddard
Graphics
West Ranch High School: Siena Zarrell
Design (tie)
Canyon High School: Elise Reyes, Clara Chung and Shahira Ellaboudy
West Ranch High School: Jaeun Park and Riley Villiers-Furze
General Excellence
West Ranch High School: Jaeun Park and Riley Villiers-Furze
General Excellence Video
Golden Valley High School: Ryan Lopez, Jimmy Warshawsky, Jordan Nunn, Yael Gutierez, Griffen Davis and Sammy Sharaf
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On Twitter as @_ChristinaCox_
