In their first entry in the Quill & Scroll International Honor Society National Media Evaluation, 42Fifty earned an International First Place award. This is the first award the student journalism staff earned during the ’24-25 academic year.
“It’s a huge honor. We work so hard as a staff so it’s awesome that we are seeing some reward for all that work on the publication,” said senior Jayden Doty, Managing Editor of 42Fifty.
Earning an International First Place Award means that the publication earned at least one highest “Superior” rating and at least one “Excellent” rating in four of five areas for evaluation from the News Media Evaluation contest. Below are the five contest categories and the score earned by 42Fifty:
- General Practices: Superior Rating
- Coverage: Superior Rating
- Writing and Editing: Superior Rating
- Visuals: Excellent Rating
- Digital Content (social media, etc.): Excellent Rating
The judge added that, with the solid foundation in “industry-standard Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics” and newswriting, the team “overcame issues by offering reporters more responsibility in publishing their own content… a great approach, especially for a high school newsroom. gives students skills they will need as they head into any newsroom or other creative industry.” Our judge concluded that the publication “shows a drive to create high-quality content in the best way possible. This is a rarity among academic newsrooms… Great job.”
“This staff totally deserves this recognition, they put in the work,” said senior and Co-Editor-in-Chief Sasha Pankuch. “It feels so nice to be recognized for the dedication this staff puts in, from working during their lunches to writing on the weekends. Everyone should be so proud.”
Congratulations to the ’23-24 editorial team (led by co-Editors-in-Chief Austin Lamb and Raelyn Alvarez, Managing Editors Natalie Raabe and Nola Quinn); additional kudos to 42Fifty’s current ’24-25 editorial team (led by co-Editors-in-Chief Nola Quinn and Sasha Pankuch, Managing Editors Jayden Doty and Jessica VanVooren, Podcast Editor Memphis Huguley, Socials Editor Nicole Gartner, Opinions Editor Jayden Doty, and Features Editor Jessica VanVooren). Amy Howerton serves as the faculty adviser.
42Fifty is the student media Publication of Oswego High School, Oswego, IL. Stories attributed to 42Fifty are written by editorial staff, or in the case of staff editorial, reflect a quorum of the student staff's ideas and opinions. To learn more about the 42Fifty staff, please see the About or Our Staff page on the website.
[…] During the ’24-25 academic year, the OH student news publication staff was thrilled to earn International First Place. Today, the team learned they had outdone themselves by earning the George H. Gallup Award, the […]