Students from McNair Academic and Dickinson High School clinched a number of awards in the Garden State Scholastic Press Association’s journalism contest this year. The Association, which presents awards and seminars for school newspapers, cited the work of Jazelle Hunt of McNair and a total of five students from Dickinson for various projects on the their respective school newspapers.
“This is the first time the McNair Cougar News has won an award,” said Sara Solberg, an English teacher and advisor to the school newspaper. “We are very proud of Jazelle.”
Hunt, a tenth grader, took second place in feature articles for the 2001-2002 contest. The feature, entitled “What’s in a name,” published in February of this year, investigated why students were given the names they had.
“The most interesting one was Macy Ann Jimenez,” Hunt explained. “Her mother took her first name from a shopping bag and her father wanted to name them after the family car, a Nissan.”
According to Hunt, the parents compromised with the name Ann, shortening the car name. Hunt said she started research for the article by creating and distributing a questionnaire asking students about their names.
“I didn’t get much of a response,” said Hunt. “So I got list of all names in the school.”
From there, Hunt selected the most exotic sounding names and conducted her interviews.
“Most of the kids were pretty easy to find, except Marquis Alvarados,’ Hunt commented. “I managed to stop him in the hall the day before the article was due.”
Hunt, who wants to become a journalist when she graduates from college, said she joined the McNair Cougar News because writing comes easy to her.
“I’ve always liked to write since I was young,” Hunt explained. “I liked how everyone was having fun with the school newspaper, but also how they were dedicated to the work.”
Feature writing is the particular line of journalism Hunt said she would like to pursue. “Writing feature stories would give me a chance to get in touch with people,” Hunt stated. “It would also allow me to use my writing skills at the same time.”
Solberg believes the best thing about involvement in the student newspaper is the training it provides.
“Working on a school newspaper gets the students thinking about the “who, what, where and why,'” said Solberg. “The closer the students are to making a newspaper happen, the more they will learn.”
Dickinson High School senior Juliet Girard was awarded second place in the editorial competition. Her editorial, printed in the Dickinsonian earlier this year, addressed the need for parents to provide sex education to their children.
“I asked some students about where they learned about sex from,” said Girard. “Most of them said they did not hear about sex from their parents, but from their peers. Sometimes the information is not accurate.”
In the editorial, Girard said the rise in teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases requires that parents talk to their children about sex.
“A lot of parents in this area don’t tell their children about sex because they come from a conservative background,” Girard said.
“It’s a good feeling to get the award,” Girard said. “I didn’t think I was going to get anything.”
Girard’s interest in science inspired her to write the essay. Girard said she was very interested molecular biology and did a summer internship at Cornell University.
“For eight weeks I worked on a gene mapping project on rice,” Girard said, adding she hoped to become a science writer when she finishes college.
Dickinson junior Robert Weber-Velez, who took second place in feature writing, investigated the effects of mold in the work place.
“I found that in water-damaged buildings black molds can grow,” said Weber-Velez. “Black molds can release neurotoxins, which can be very dangerous.”
Weber-Velez said her mother had her health effected by the vapor from the black mold, which lead him to write the feature.
“I took the research I had from my mother’s case and expanded on it,” Weber-Velez explained. “It turned out the ventilation in my mother’s office was messed up and it was putting toxins in the air.”
The third winner from Dickinson High School was junior Rossanna Villaflor, for the artwork she did for Weber-Velez’s article.
“I looked at halls and walkways for ideas,’ said Villaflor about her award winning illustration. The drawing shows a number of the workplace chemical hazards which Weber-Velez wrote about.
“I have won awards for my art work before,’ said Villaflor. “I don’t let it get to me. I try to treat each award like it is the first one.”
Recent Dickinson graduates Angela Castro and Jessica Witte were also cited by the Scholastic Press Association. According to Susan Everett, faculty advisor to the Dickinsonian, Castro received honorable mention in photography for pictures of the World Trade Center taken from Dickinson High School on Sept. 11. Witte won second place for an editorial on 9/11. Both Castro and Witte’s work appeared in a special Sept. 11 edition of the Dickinsonian.