The girls of the Sacred Hearts Academy Ka Leo jumped for joy when their publication was announced Best in State at the annual 54th Hawaii High School Journalism Awards ceremony Tuesday, said Emily Trueba, a senior and this year’s most valuable staffer at the Sacred Hearts Academy Ka Leo.

The win earned the publication a $200 award, while the Hawaii Baptist Academy Eagle Eye took home the $100 second-place award, bringing its eight-year winning streak to an end. Meanwhile, the Kalani High School Ka Leo o Kalani took third place with a $50 award.

“We were holding each other’s hands in anticipation because we were really nervous,” Trueba said. “It was a really happy moment for all of us.”

The program included a keynote speech from Honolulu Magazine’s editor at large, Robbie Dingeman, who spoke about her extensive background working in the field of journalism and what it means to be a journalist in today’s society. This year’s first-place Journalist of the Year winner, Skye Bulman from ‘Iolani School, also gave a speech, in which she described her journey as a young journalist and gave advice on putting together a portfolio. An Vo of McKinley High School was the second-place Journalist of the Year.

Trueba said that throughout the past year she and her classmates overcame challenges like finding sources in a timely manner and having to work remotely with their adviser, Alyssa Myers, who was on maternity leave for a few months of the school year.

Despite giving birth over winter break, Myers continued to work with her students via email throughout her maternity leave, providing them with support that senior Samantha Europa said is deserving of immense recognition.

“The amount of work that our adviser, Mrs. Myers, has put in for all of us to help us achieve our goals, submitting as many articles as we can and winning this year, has been amazing,” she said.

Europa also took home an award in the Investigative Journalism category. Like Trueba, she has been reporting for Ka Leo for the past year. Both girls said that they are considering attending college on the mainland after graduation this year, and plan to include journalism in their future studies.

With many of the Ka Leo staff having a number of extracurricular activities in addition to journalism, Myers commended her students on their level of involvement and commitment to their work.

“It was just really impressive to see how they overcame the challenge of just finding the time,” Myers said. “I can’t express that enough, just how committed they were, coming in on their own time, working on articles, coming in to do interviews and just making it work.”

Despite Hawaii Baptist Academy’s broken streak, the publication’s editor in chief, Cameron Pien, said that she wouldn’t have traded this past year’s experiences with her classmates for the world.

“Obviously, everyone was a little disappointed,” she said. “But I think everyone was just really glad to be there together and have that year of memories, especially because a lot of us are seniors.”

Win or lose, Pien added that the Hawaii High School Journalism Awards have given her the valuable opportunity to explore other young journalists’ work.

“We all love journalism, and we all want it to be better for the island and our high schools,” Pien said. “Even though we’re technically competing, it’s actually a way to collaborate and be inspired by what other schools are doing.”

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Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.