Excellence in high school journalism was honored on May 30 as the Sacramento High School Journalism Network (SHSJN) hosted its 2nd Annual awards dinner.
The SHSJN is a project of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, in collaboration with The Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE). The program was started with generous funding from Mr. Rowland Rebele, a former publisher, First Amendment advocate, and philanthropist.
"The California Scholastic Journalism Initiative (CSJI) is a non-profit effort to restore and improve student journalism programs in California public schools," said Director Steve O'Donoghue. "CSJI helps develop and support collaborative efforts involving funders, professional media, and education organizations to rebuild journalism programs, especially in urban high schools where they are most at risk."
Karl Grubaugh, a journalism teacher from Granite Bay High School and the 2008 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, was the keynote speaker. He praised the students for their hard work and their interest in journalism.
"What you do is real. What you do is relevant," Grubaugh told the students. "I think my students make a difference. I think you make a difference."
Currently, 12 Sacramento-area schools participate in the Sacramento High School Journalism Network:
- Elinor Lincoln Hickey Jr./Sr. High School and Gerber Jr./Sr. High School (SCOE)
- Foothill High School (Twin Rivers Unified)
- Hiram Johnson High School, C.K. McClatchy High School, and West Campus High School (Sacramento City Unified)
- Inderkum High School (Natomas Unified)
- Laguna Creek High School (Elk Grove Unified)
- Rio Americano High School (San Juan Unified)
- Vista del Lago High School (Folsom Cordova Unified)
- Davis High School (Davis Joint Unified, Davis)
- River City High School (Washington Unified, West Sacramento)
Students write stories for the Sac County Breeze newspaper. The stories are then filtered through a team of writing coaches. Professional journalists serve as mentors and support the students in the classroom. SHSJN also provides monitoring for the teachers, free curriculum materials, and access to scholastic journalism resources.
2013 Award Winners
Former News10 anchor Sharon Ito and former Sacramento Bee reporter Walter Yost served as writing coaches and presented the following awards during the ceremony:
BEST NEWS WRITING:
Connor Jang and Victor Lam (Rio Americano High School)
BEST FEATURE WRITING:
Daniel Tutt (Davis High School)
BEST EDITORIAL WRITING:
Monica Chen (C.K. McClatchy High School)
BEST COLUMN or PERSONAL OPINION WRITING:
Lizzie Robinson (C.K. McClatchy High School)
BEST SPORTS WRITING:
Clare Carroll (Vista del Lago High School)
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY:
Eliyas Vang (Hiram Johnson High School)
BEST EDITORIAL NEWSPAPER ART:
Ruvim Noga (Foothill High School)
OVERALL NEWSPAPER EXCELLENCE:
The HUB (Davis High School)
SPECIAL RECOGNITION:
The Mount Everest Award (Gerber Jr./Sr. High School)