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Hawaii Baptist Academy high school students continued their winning streak for a sixth year at the 51st High School Journalism Awards, taking home trophies in six categories.
Due to COVID-19, the annual gathering for student journalists to celebrate their accomplishments was canceled.
“There are always challenges being a journalist, whether it be sources, deadlines or equipment,” Jay Hartwell, president of the Hawaii Publishers Association, said. “Part of the training of becoming a good journalist is learning how to work beyond those challenges, get the story right and get it to the people.”
HBA Co-editor Kaycee Nakashima recently graduated and said she was bummed that she couldn’t physically celebrate with her fellow journalists.
“It was my last year,” she said. “I really wanted to attend the award ceremony one last time before I graduated, but you just have to make do with what you’ve got. I was just glad that I was able to have a good year in my journalism class.”
However, virtual congratulations were exchanged with one another once her school received the news.
“I think it’s absolutely crazy,” Nakashima said. “I get to say that all four years I’ve been attending HBA, we’ve won every single year. It feels like we’ve left a legacy.”
HBA also captured six award categories.
Seven public schools and six private schools participated in the contest.
Contest entries were judged in 20 categories, including news writing, photo essay, editorial cartoon, multimedia story presentation and social media. Public and private schools were judge separately.
The overall second-place winner was Sacred Hearts Academy, which won five awards: news and feature writing, single issue, multimedia story presentation and blogging. The overall third-place winner was Mililani High School.
The trophy, plaques and certificates will be sent out later this summer.
The sponsors of the contest included the Hawaii Publishers Association, Honolulu Star-Advertiser and MidWeek.
Best in State category winners:
News: Sacred Hearts
Feature: Sacred Hearts
Profile: Kalani
Sports: Sacred Hearts
Column/review: Kamehameha Kapalama
Photo essay: HBA
Action/candid: HBA
Portrait photo: HBA
Layout/design: HBA
Illustration: Waipahu
Infographic: Kaiser
Editorial cartoon: Kaiser
Comic strip: Kaiser
Single issue: Sacred Hearts
Video: Mid-Pacific
Multimedia story presentation: Sacred Hearts
Website: Mid-Pacific
Blog: Sacred Hearts
Social media: HBA
Poster: HBA
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