The intrepid journalists over at The Northwood Howler are pretty adept at covering the news. But they were making news as well at the recent Orange County Journalism Education Association competition, placing first in their division and racking up a number of individual honors.
Junior Simone D'Luna and sophomore Christina Ko collect their awards. (Photo taken by Kris George)
This year’s OCJEA contest for student newspaper reporters, yearbook staffs and broadcast news teams was held on Saturday, Feb. 26 at Cal State Fullerton. When all was said and done, Northwood High School's paper had earned “Best of Show” honors in Division 2, which includes publications of eight to 12 pages. In addition, journalists Govil Gupta (second place) and Aneesha Prakash (14th place) were honored for feature writing; Tina Xu (10th place) and Jeremy Chen (13th place) were recognized for editorials; Shazib Haq (first place) and Kris George (fourth place) won awards for photography; and Simone D'Luna (third place) and Christina Ko (seventh place) took home honors for news stories. The Howler also placed third in Division 1 of the Newspaper Sweepstakes category, which represents overall newspaper performance, according to Adviser Tim Horrigan. "They are awesome," Horrigan said of his staff. "This was their idea. I've never pushed them to enter any competitions, and I think this is a testament both to their ability as writers and confidence in themselves to go out there and put it on the line. I'm very proud of them and of our school's support of our students' First Amendment right to express themselves while following the ethical precepts of good journalism." To read The Howler online, click here.