Sage Students Big Winners at SCJEA State Writeoff
For the second year in a row, all five Publications Staff photographers won awards in the advance submission competition at the Southern California Journalism Education Association Writeoffs held Saturday in Long Beach.
Junior Krystal Gallegos won first place in feature photography for an Assassins cast action shot taken during dress rehearsals. Senior Keeyun Jackie Nam won third place in the same category.
Juniors Sahar Rohani and Sahar Emtiaz won 7th and 8th place in News Photography. Junior Lauren Hausman received a 13th place in Sports Photography.
Sage Hill School entered six writers in the “writing” categories and won five awards. Freshman Madison Harris-Wiener received a 6th place in Novice News, Senior editor-in-chief Kristin Saroyan won an 8th place in Editorial Writing and junior online editor Tommy Lee placed 13th in Sports Writing.
Talented Publications Staff cartoonist Lynn Fong won 6th place in Editorial Cartooning.
The two Publications Staff consistent award-winning Critical Review writers, senior Claire Dwyer and junior Julia Dupuis, won 14th and 15 place in that category this year.
All photography and writing competitions honor 15 winners in each area. This year’s writeoff was the largest in a decade with 275 students from 32 high schools competing after qualifying in regional writeoffs three weeks ago.
Because all Sage Hill School competitors had afternoon obligations at Multicultural Fair on campus, the winners will receive their awards at Town Meeting Tuesday.
“I am amazed by our competitiveness in journalism,” said adviser Konnie Krislock who took over the program four years ago. “We are the only Orange County school who produces three publications in what is an after school program. Other schools have two or three journalism classes that meet every day. We are lucky to get four or five meetings in a month with all the other conflicts in X Block.”
Sage Hill School is the smallest high school in competition at this level, she said, and “it is a credit to our instruction in English and art classes that these students are so well prepared to take on larger program contestants.”
