Octagon brings home 19 awards from San Francisco journalism convention (slideshow included)

The Octagon staff traveled to San Francisco, April 12-14, for the annual spring National High School Journalism Convention. The event was sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association.

Octagon staffers participated in 18 write-off competitions, earning an Honorable Mention, Excellent or Superior in 17 of them.

In addition, the print Octagon took seventh place in the Best of Show competition in the “Newspaper Tabloid 16 or Fewer Pages” category, and the online Octagon placed sixth in the “Website Large School” category.  (The “Website Large School” category is typically for publications at schools with 1500 or more students, so the staff doesn’t know why the Octagon was placed in this category instead of in “Website Small School.”)

Because the yearbook staff attended the fall convention in Dallas, Octagon staffers also participated in write-off contests in the yearbook category.

In addition, staffers competed in Quiz Bowl, a game-show-like test of current events, press law, U.S. government, AP style and journalistic terminology. One of the teams – senior Sahej Claire, juniors Chardonnay Needler and Mehdi Lacombe and sophomore Jackson Margolis – placed third of 26 teams after losing to the eventual winner, West Linn High School, in the semifinals.

Listed below are staffers’ individual awards.

Writing Contests

Newswriting: Senior Sonja Hansen, Honorable Mention

Editorial Writing: Senior Sahej Claire, Honorable Mention

Feature Writing: Senior Annya Dahmani, Honorable Mention

Sports Writing: Junior Jack Christian, Excellent

Review Writing: Junior Mehdi Lacombe, Excellent

Commentary Writing: Sophomore Jackson Margolis, Honorable Mention

News Editing and Headline Writing: Junior Chardonnay Needler, Superior

News Layout Contests

Newspaper Layout: Junior Mohini Rye, Superior

Newsmagazine Layout: Junior Allison Zhang, Excellent

Press Law and Ethics

Press Law and Ethics: Senior Katia Dahmani, Excellent

Yearbook Contests

Yearbook Copy Caption, Academics: Sophomore Héloïse Schep, Honorable Mention

Yearbook Copy Caption, Clubs: Sophomore Anna Frankel, Honorable Mention

Graphic Design Contests

Graphic Design, Advertising: Sophomore Larkin Barnard-Bahn, Excellent

Photography Contests

Portfolio: Junior Jacqueline Chao, Excellent

First-Year Photo: Sophomore Shimin Zhang, Honorable Mention

Broadcast Contests

Broadcast Feature Story: Junior Harrison Moon, Honorable Mention

Broadcast Newswriting: Sophomore David Situ, Excellent

—By Sahej Claire

Online Time

Online editors-in-chief junior Chardonnay Needler and senior Sahej Claire with the National Scholastic Press Association Best of Show Award in the "website large school" category. Although this category was for websites whose schools had a student population of no more than 1,500, the Octagon still won sixth place in this class.

Print Power

Seniors and print editors-in-chief Katia Dahmani, Sonja Hansen and Annya Dahmani with the National Scholastic Press Association Best of Show Award. The Octagon won seventh place in the "newspaper tabloid (16 or fewer pages)" category.

Sophomore David Situ

Broadcast Newswriting - Excellent

Sophomore Larkin Barnard-Bahn

Graphic Design: Advertising - Excellent

Junior Mohini Rye

Newspaper Layout - Superior Participants in this write-off sent their front page designs in weeks before the convention. Rye had to create the front page for a fictional newspaper called The Voice.

Junior Chardonnay Needler

News Editing/Headline Writing - Superior In addition to asking competitors to write headlines for two articles, this write-off also tested students on AP style and current events.

Senior Sahej Claire

Editorial Writing - Honorable Mention

Junior Harrison Moon

Broadcast Feature - Honorable Mention

Senior Sonja Hansen

News Writing - Honorable Mention

Senior Annya Dahmani

Feature Writing - Honorable Mention

Junior Jack Christian

Sports Writing - Excellent

Sophomore Jackson Margolis

Commentary Writing - Honorable Mention

Senior Katia Dahmani

Press Law & Ethics - Excellent Senior Katia Dahmani has done the press law and ethics test for the past three years.

Junior Mehdi Lacombe

Review Writing - Excellent For this write-off contest, students reviewed a local magician.

Sophomore Héloïse Schep

Yearbook Copy/Caption: Academics - Honorable Mention

Sophomore Anna Frankel

Yearbook Copy/Caption: Clubs - Honorable Mention

Junior Allison Zhang

Newsmagazine: Layout - Excellent. Contestants in this category design their newsmagazines using images and information provided by the National Scholastic Press Association and send in their designs weeks before the convention begins.

—All photos by Jacqueline Chao