Nearly 170 students from across Montana — from as far away as Frazer to as close as Hellgate High School — thronged to the University of Montana on Thursday, April 18 for the annual High School Journalism Day.
Students took workshops with School of Journalism faculty on topics like AI and journalism, diversifying coverage, using social media for good, covering the skies with drone photography, conflict photojournalism, TV news and more.
They also accepted accolades for all the hard work they do covering their communities in the annual High School Journalism Awards contest. Sneak a peek at the day in the photo gallery below from UM photographer Ryan Brennecke.
Below is the full list of winners from the awards ceremony:
| High School Class | Category | Category Ranking | Individual Winner (If applicable) | School | Judge’s Comments |
| C | Advertising Design | First | Anna Lucas | Geyser Public Schools | The yoga design does a great job of creating striking yet simple designs without too much clutter. The ad conveys a sense of the business — calm, simple — and does so effectively. The “favorite pose line should be more integrated into the design, but nicely done. |
| C | Advertising Design | Second | Matauri Vincent | Geyser Public Schools | The hair salon ad includes some nice touches that convey sophistication and the lettering is clear and effective. |
| A | Broadcast Pacesetter | First | Jason Michalsky & the BC Spotlight Team | Billings Central Catholic High School | The BC Spotlight does an excellent job of covering a wide variety of Billings Central students doing a wide variety of activities. The team covers sports, academics and extra-curriculars and manages to include an impressive number of diverse student voices. The broadcast is filled with news and information and also lighter bits of fun and frivolity. The anchors are well-spoken and friendly and the program was technically sound and engaging. Congratulations to the BC Spotlight, the Class A Broadcast Pacesetter this year! |
| AA | Editorial Cartooning | First | DJ Knickerbocker and Sey Roberts | Helena High School | great illustration about special education. Love the concept and execution! |
| B | Feature Photography | First | Kelly Lamb | Powell County High School | The photographer chose the right time to make this beautiful sunset landscape image. Effective use of light and lens. Terrific job of transporting the viewer to this magnificent location. |
| B | Feature Photography | Second | James Tilley | Powell County High School | Striking photo. Really grabs your attention. Nice moment. Vibrant colors. |
| B | Feature Photography | Third | Harley Molendyke | Powell County High School | The photographer saw something many people wouldn’t see. Love the quality of light. Effective use of shallow depth of field. |
| A | Feature Photography | First | Zöe Sellers | Bigfork High School | Senior Year Smiles. Nice moment. Effective use of shallow depth of field. |
| A | Feature Photography | Second | Ella Fairbanks | Billings Central Catholic High School | Billings Central Art Gala Student Spotlight. Nice collection of photos. Two good detail images. Portraits are sharply focused. Proper exposures. Colors are good. |
| A | Feature Photography | Third | Allie Dodd | Custer County District High School | Student jobs: Montana Theatre. Popcorn for movie patron. Nice little moment. |
| C | Feature Writing | First | Isaiah Bracha | Geyser Public Schools | Nice feature on a supermarket manager. |
| C | Feature Writing | Second | Matauri Vincent | Geyser Public Schools | Colorful story on a school handyman. |
| B | Feature Writing | First | Kate Falagan | Florence-Carlton High School | Excellent use of sources in this feature. |
| B | Feature Writing | Second | Bailey Fouraker | Ennis High School | I always wondered about the origins of the Shamrock Shake! |
| B | Feature Writing | Third | Bailey Fouraker | Ennis High School | Great look at the downside of fast fashion. |
| A | Feature Writing | First | Alex Johnson | Billings Central Catholic High School | Great look at the school’s tech investment. |
| A | Feature Writing | Second | Joani Powell | Custer County High School | Great look at the perils of vaping. |
| A | Feature Writing | Third | Kyan Meservey | Park High School | Great use of quotes in this aviation piece. |
| AA | Feature Writing | First | Ila Bell | Hellgate High School | Nice job interviewing multiple sources on Missoula’s changing downtown. |
| AA | Feature Writing | Second | Diego Morales | Sentinel High School | Excellent tribute to a student’s life. |
| AA | Feature Writing | Third | Devyn Deschamps | Hellgate High School | Excellent profile of an English teacher. |
| A | Infographic | First | Lillie Suffia | Bigfork High School | Several of your graphics do a great job of mixing photography with design elements all while maintaining and promoting the critical information the graphic seeks to convey. The Senior’s Night volleyball graphic and the women’s basketball game against Stevensville are both perhaps your strongest example of work. |
| B | Infographic | First | Carissa Jackman | Powell County High School | The timeline of the National Guard compacts a ton of information into digestible bites, offering both a linear history of the organization and a quick way to identify key moments. I might consider rather than numbering the entries using the dates or perhaps icons or photos of key spots to create more action in the graphic, but really well done. |
| A | News Photography | First | Ella Fairbanks | Billings Central Catholic High School | Decent visual coverage of this event. Photographer worked the situation for a variety of shots from tight shots to wide shots. To improve on this series, work to get closer to people and their expressions during the event. |
| A | News Photography | Second | Baylee Erickson | Bigfork High School | Good composition with foreground, middle ground, background. Good job covering an story that affects your community outside of school. |
| A | News Writing | First | Zoë Sellers | Bigfork High School | The reporting on the “Social media in politics” piece is impressive and offered plenty of interesting details. |
| A | News Writing | Second | Harper Pham | Billings Central Catholic High School | |
| AA | News Writing | First | Staff | Sentinel High School | The coverage of the Missoula County Public Schools budget crisis was impressively deep and thorough. |
| AA | News Writing | Second | Will Eaton | Helena High School | The reporting on the “More students, fewer papers?” piece was impressively reported. |
| B | News Writing | First | Bailey Fouraker | Ennis High School | The TikTok ban story showed great news instincts. |
| B | News Writing | Second | Millie Shepp | Florence-Carlton High School | |
| B | Newspaper Design | First | Staff | Florence-Carlton High School | Great use of photography throughout. The design is like the paper: pretty fun! |
| A | Newspaper Design | First | Staff | Custer County High School | Clean, effective design. Nice use of dominant photographs and headlines. |
| AA | Newspaper Design | First | Staff | Hellgate High School | Great use of color. Design has a lot of energy! |
| A | Newspaper Pacesetter | First | Custer County District High School | The Signal Butte takes top honors again, based on strong reporting and bold opinions (especially the one about doors on bathroom stalls). Its photography was the best in the class, and its headlines were clear and strong. The design is traditional, but it makes this well-edited paper easy to navigate. The writing stood out for the way it featured student voices, especially in quotations. My only suggestion is that the staff consider a bit more variety in its choice of features. | |
| A | Newspaper Pacesetter | Second | Park County High School | The Geyser is a strong high school paper with great variety in its content. It did a good job of covering school events and issues, but I also like short features on student interests outside school, such as the one on aviation training the piece about the celebrities and prominent people who come to fly fish in the Livingston area. I liked the profile of the retiring principal too. The paper’s tabloid design makes for a good cover, but the news pages are crammed so tightly with stories, headlines and too-small photos that it makes them sometimes hard to read. Still, the staff’s passion for doing this work is undeniable. Kudos. | |
| AA | Newspaper Pacesetter | Second | Gallatin High School | It’s great to see the Raptor Report in this year’s contest. The paper is lively and colorful and tries to cover a lot of ground in its small tabloid publication. The editions carried some standout features, including the one of Ms. Covington and “The Grandmas of GenZ.” Generally, photos could be stronger and larger and capture more student interaction. My other advice for improvement would be to include more student voices and offer bold commentary on student and school life. Stronger copy editing would help, too. | |
| AA | Newspaper Pacesetter | First | Hellgate High School | The Lance topped the Pacesetter contest with strong well-sourced reporting and writing on pressing issues facing not only the school and the district but the community too. Its robust opinions covered subjects ranging from problems with FAFSA forms to new regimes for grading. It carried strong features, movie reviews and sports coverage. The fun “Say What?” feature included even more student voices. The paper’s design is solid and consistent, and the headlines revealing. Copy editing is a strong suit, but photography suffers from the limits of the tabloid format. Still, this was impressive work from a big, enthusiastic staff. | |
| C | Newspaper Pacesetter | First | Geyser Public Schools | ||
| C | Newspaper Pacesetter | First | Geyser Public Schools | Geyser’s school newsletter is a bright and lively templated publication with a good mix of photos, short stories with good headlines, along with a superintendent’s letter and news from the school guidance counselor who also heads the journalism team. The two issues feature homecoming photos and stories about trips to the Stanford Pool and a college and career fair. Readers learned about the causes and treatment of ADHD, FAFSA problems., what students were reading in English class and their attempts to draft constitutions in government class. This is a newsy and fun service to the community. My only suggestion would be the inclusion of more student voices. | |
| B | Newspaper Pacesetter | First | Florence Carlton High School | This paper was the best of its class, right down to the staff photo. It featured good design, bold headlines and surprising features with good leads and great interviewing that produced quirky quotes from students. My favorite story included a graphic about the hardware in Mr. Ketelhut’s broken wrist. Others included regular features on students’ close calls and the latest in thrifting fashions. Its sports coverage excels. It has some great standing heads too, my favorite of which was “Amazingly Necessary News.” The staff even covered a cowboy version of Hamlet produced for the school’s annual Pie Social event. How do I subscribe? | |
| B | Newspaper Pacesetter | Second | Ennis High School | This templated publication helped a small staff cover a lot of ground. Staffers wrote well about the sports teams’ move up from Class C and the drama team’s production of “As You Like It.” They offered students’ New Year’s resolutions another piece about students’ expectations for the year ahead. I read good vignettes on the school’s seniors, a strong story about the TikTok ban and a feature on ketchup. The design is good but it would be nice to see room more for photography, especially larger, closer photos of students doing the activities described. The headlines were strong, especially on the features. | |
| A | Online Pacesetter | First | Park High School | Park High has put together e a great website. Clean design and strong multimedia entries, including a sports podcast and video vignettes, make the site a dynamic and interesting news source. The Geyser is a model other schools should check out. | |
| A | Online Pacesetter | Second | Billings Central Catholic High School | Strong contender and a robust Instagram account make the BC Chronicle a great entry. If not for the creativity of the Park, this program would surely garner the top award. Things to consider would be finding ways to highlight more multimedia on the site. Still, very strong entry. | |
| A | Online Pacesetter | Third | Bigfork High School | It is wrong to label this site and effort third, but this year the A Class is highly competitive. The Norse Code remains a model for a multimedia newsroom. | |
| AA | Online Pacesetter | First | Hellgate High School | This was a close decision, but Hellgate’s strong site, its mix of media (including a notable podcast) and its effective layout and presentation put the Lance at the top this year. The site continues to impress and the student work is highlighted effectively. | |
| AA | Online Pacesetter | Second | Sentinel High School | The Scoop made a strong case this year. A dynamic design, with lots of different ways into stories, and an appealing layout made the site an effective entry. The Creative Corner and other unexpected aspects of a news site I think are really effective and I would encourage editors to consider how you all incorporate other aspects of arts and culture into the site. Well done. | |
| AA | Online Pacesetter | Third | Gallatin High School | Gallatin High has arrive in the digital news space. They have delivered a strong site with many features and appear to be ready to take on all comers. One thing to consider moving forward would be to worry less about the individual editions (the core organizational element of the site) and think about organizing the site more by topic. But, this is a very strong entry this year and shows a program on the rise. | |
| C | Opinion Writing | First | Anna Lucas | Geyser Public Schools | Anna is clearly correct and passionate about the superior Chips Ahoy cookies. |
| B | Opinion Writing | First | Kate Falagan | Florence-Carlton High School | Balanced reporting mixed with opinion on cheerleading. Great job! |
| A | Opinion Writing | First | Alec Hagemeister | Custer County High School | A winning column that identifies an important issue that affects students: bathrooms and privacy. |
| A | Opinion Writing | Second | Lillie Suffia | Bigfork High School | Balanced reporting along with opinion about the length of winter break. Nice job! |
| A | Opinion Writing | Third | Rosie Moseley | Bigfork High School | Offers good, newsy information along with a point of view about area ski hills. Nice work! |
| AA | Opinion Writing | First | Julia Key | Hellgate High School | Well-written, well-reported. “The Case for Better Grading” is a strong reported op-ed. |
| AA | Opinion Writing | Second | Jack Royal | Helena High School | Excellent opinion piece about how climate change affects Montana. Great research here informed the argument. |
| AA | Opinion Writing | Third | Will Hansen | Hellgate High School | Important article tying coverage of a chairlift incident in Colorado to lack of coverage on a similar incident at Snowbowl. Shows maturity in the writing. |
| AA | Opinion Writing | Third | Diego Morales | Sentinel High School | Fun and fabulous review of Stephen King’s, “Mr. Mercedes.” Loved it. |
| A | Sports Event Writing | First | Allie Dodd & Joani Powell | Custer County District High School | |
| AA | Sports Event Writing | First | Brennan Labbe | Hellgate High School | This reporting on a golf match shows the inner challenge of the game with effective post-match interviews. |
| AA | Sports Event Writing | Second | Brennan Labbe | Hellgate High School | Spotlighting key moments gives readers a courtside sense of this exciting game. |
| AA | Sports Event Writing | Third | Brennan Labbe | Hellgate High School | Coverage of the always-fun cross town rivalry games makes for good quotes and fun reading. |
| B | Sports Event Writing | First | Isaac Bates | Florence-Carlton High School | Strong quotes let readers share the surprise and excitement of a big win in wrestling. |
| C | Sports Event Writing | First | Andrea Ingold | Geyser Public Schools | Coverage of the Big Sandy Lady Bearcats win over the Winifred Outlaws captures the excitement of the battle to qualify for the state basketball tournament. |
| B | Sports Photography | First | Kelly Lamb | Powell County High School | Good action moment, work on decluttering background by using a shallower depth of field or different angle. |
| B | Sports Photography | Second | Kelly Lamb | Powell County High School | Decent moment and expressions. Interesting composition. Low light in gym seems to be affecting image quality and grain in the image. |
| B | Sports Photography | Third | Kelly Lamb | Powell County High School | Interesting moment. The focus is on the person in the middle in the back. The focus really needs to be on the player hitting the ground. |
| A | Student Free Press Award | First | Piper Lee | Bigfork High School | Taking on school policy is always a tricky thing for high school journalists to tackle, but Piper Lee’s logical and respectful job of pointing out in the discriminatory nature of the school dress code is the kind of editorializing we need in high school. Piper points out the wording of the code, its changing enforcement and the effects on students while maintaining a clear and convincing tone. |
| A | Video: Arts & Entertainment | First | Piper Lee | Bigfork HS | Entertaining series where teacher Mr. Seeton chooses a song of the week and gives background and a reason the song was chosen. Quality audio, video and a compelling personality make this an engaging recurring segment of the Norse Code’s broadcast news. |
| A | Video: General Assignment News | First | Zoe Sellers, Baylee Erickson and Rosie Moseley | Bigfork High School | The announcements are very creative with strong production values. Clever use of holiday graphics and snow over the opening video. Good energy and vocal variety from the anchors. Good pacing throughout with a good variety of stories. Two cameras would help take you to the next level. That would allow you to use both single shots and two-shots so that when only one is speaking, both don’t need to be in the shot. Also, a tripod would help keep the video steady during the intro to Seeton’s Song. |
| A | Video: PSA | First | Zoë Sellers | Bigfork High School | |
| A | Video: PSA | Second | Piper Lee | Bigfork High School | |
| A | Video: Sports | First | Piper Lee | Bigfork High School | This video gives great sense of what it’s like to be in the action during a football game. The video and the music are edited very well to work together and to build the sense of excitement. It’s a “hype” video and it accomplishes its goal. The pacing is good and builds throughout the video. I like the use of the natural sound along with the music and I think you could add even more of that, throughout. |
| A | Video: Sports | Second | Piper Lee | Bigfork High School | I like the structure of this video. It provides a good beginning with the shots of the players… then moves to the action in the middle… and ends well with the scoreboard. The music and pictures work well together and it’s a good length for social media. |
| A | Video: Sports | Third | Piper Lee | Bigfork High School | Good tribute to Eli Thorness. I like that it shows him in a variety of situations and has a good beginning and ending. The pictures and music work nicely together. The challenge with featuring one person is finding good edit points to move from shot-to-shot. It makes it easier in the edit if when you’re shooting the video, you let your subject enter the frame and then exit the frame so that you have clean edit points. |
| C | Video: Sports | First | Serenity Ingold | Geyser Public Schools | This video does a great job of capturing the excitement of basketball. It takes the viewers right into the action. And it does a good job of introducing the subjects. I would like to see Serenity continue working on this and add interviews from the subjects so that we get to hear from them and those around them. |
| AA | Photo Illustration | First | Karma Patey | The Spartan Scoop | Karma created a compelling, evocative illustration that enhanced the article and pulled readers in, showcasing both artistic talent and sound editorial judgement. |
| AA | Photo Illustration | Second | Jadis Veal | Sentinel High School | “Horrors And The Claim To Fame” shows both artistic talent and compositional prowess. |
| AA | Photo Illustration | Third | Jadis Veal | Sentinel High School | The illustration for “Guess Who Iconic Horror Poems” really made this piece, using color well and showcasing exceptional artistic abilities. |
| A | Photo Illustration | First | Zoë Sellers | Bigfork High School | Zoë Sellers’ illustration for “Surviving college financially” is both clever and well executed, showing both design talent and excellent editorial instincts. The ways Zoë used words to create the image was especially expert and made the illustration even more interesting to the eye. |
| AA | Audio | First | Julia Key | Hellgate High School | The diversity of interviews was impressive, and the story structure was compelling. |
| A | Photo Illustration | Second | Joani Powell | Custer County District High School | The illustration for “Some teenagers opt out of high school” is effective and composed well. It illustrated the story well but our one note would be to make sure you label an illustration as an illustration to be extra transparent to readers. |
| AA | Audio | Second | Nicholas DeWald | Helena High School | The premise of this story is fascinating – I love the driving mystery of who made this past paper and how their experiences at Helena High compare to that of the hosts. I would love to hear more episodes, dissecting more topics the paper touches on, and including more voices from current Helena High students and past ones. Maybe you can even find some of the Paper Tiger journalists and interview them on the podcast! |
| AA | Audio | Third | Ezra Graham | Gallatin High School | The editing, scoring and interview questions in this piece are so well done. I love how clearly the listener is introduced to the host’s connection to the interview subject. |
| B | Photo Illustration | First | Marshall Ondrasek & Lily Crawford | Florence-Carlton High School | The illustration is fun and it’s done well and helps readers really “see” the subject of the article and get the right amount of “ick” necessary. |
| A | Sports Photography | First | Ella Fairbanks | Billings Central Catholic High School | Swimming can be hard to photograph. Good job getting a good intense face during training. Just zoom in a little bit tighter. The whole picture is that face and the other swimmers. We don’t’ need the flags and the walls above the edge of the pool. Zoom in on the main action a bit more. |
| A | Sports Photography | Second | Julie Fink | Custer County District High School | Good tight action on wrestling practice. Think about changing your angle a bit to get rid of some of the distracting elements in the background. |
Montana Journalism 