On Tuesday night, at Loudoun County High School, Loudoun Now hosted the inaugural Excellence in High School Journalism Awards, honoring over 60 nominees and handing out cash prizes totaling $5,000 to winners and runner-ups. Three Dominion journalism students took home awards in the podcast, photography, and videography categories.
Loudoun Now looks forward to establishing this event as an annual event to celebrate aspiring journalists in Loudoun County. “It’s the best way for us to encourage journalism at a local level, to encourage students,” Kurt Aschermann, Board Member of Loudoun Now, said.
Senior Evelyn Mansaray was awarded first place in the photography category for her photo at Dominion’s PowderPuff Game. Her photo was chosen as the winner out of all the photography nominees. “My heart sank a little bit. I didn’t expect my name to be called. Once I got up there, I barely heard anything else,” Mansaray said.
Out of the five categories, Dominion students received runner-up awards for their podcast and video work. Seniors Hila Hakimi and Vitalina Ulitovska received second-place for their podcast “Crying over College”. “We made a few podcast episodes about our college application process and getting waitlisted, rejected, deferred, and our reactions to those. We have about four episodes out right now with more to come,” Ulitovska said.
For her video on Special Abilities Awareness Week, senior Marley Vann received a runner-up award. “My winning video, it was about special abilities awareness and it was about community and art,” Vann said.
Yesterday’s event had Google serving as the presenting sponsor and was sponsored by Equinix Major Family Foundation BCT Community Bank, Backflow Technology LLC, Bank of Clarke, and Loudoun Education Foundation.Represented by Arienne Thompson Plourde, Global Engagement Lead for Google Data Centers. “We’re already looking to the fall, like I said, to do some of this professional development programming that we want to come up with, and we’re thinking through to next year’s awards. I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm and excitement and synergy, and we’re just happy to be on board,” said Arienne Thompson Plourde, Google’s Global Engagement Lead for Google Data Centers.
Journalism teacher Mitch Schwartz said, “It is great that students are getting outside recognition for all of their work and efforts. Having a group of judges validate what you have spent so much time on is rewarding. The future program is an incredible opportunity for the journalism students of Dominion and Loudoun County.”
Additionally, a grand prize of an internship over the summer at Loudoun Now was awarded to Rock Ridge High School students Sanvi Challa and Melissa Waas for their coverage on Rock Ridge’s new HALO Smart Sensors.
In the coming fall, Loudoun Now plans to host a gathering of professional journalists from the DMV for students to hear about practices and career opportunities. Along with the gathering, local college journalists will encourage students to study journalism in their continued education. Loudoun Now plans to host the second annual Excellence in High School Journalism Awards, next year.
