LAS CRUCES—Las Cruces Public Schools is celebrating a big win in a journalism contest. Here is the information provided by the district: Taking home top honors at a statewide student journalism competition, students from the Centennial High School media program won 28 individual awards and first place in the team competition at the 2018 New Mexico Activities Association/New Mexico Scholastic Press Association State Competition Saturday, Jan. 27 at El Dorado High School in Albuquerque, NM.
“It’s wonderful to see such talented students and educators being recognized for their work,” said Superintendent Dr. Greg Ewing. “I look forward to seeing all the great things these students will undoubtedly accomplish.”
As part of the competition, the team’s 39 students competed against nine other New Mexico high school teams in four main categories: High School Newspaper, High School Yearbook, Literary Magazine and Broadcast. The CHS team scored a total of 77 points in the team competition, besting the second-place team by a margin of 45 points.
Individually, students from the CHS team earned eight first-place awards, 10 second-place awards, six third-place awards and two honorable mention awards. In addition, Jude Gonzales was awarded The Mark Holm High School Photojournalism Award.
Last year, students in the CHS media program placed second in the team competition and earned six individual awards. Although the students competed in only the Broadcast category in 2017, the six individual awards within that category nearly led them to win the overall team competition.
In addition to winning the Statewide NMAA competition, the CHS Student News team was recently named the STN Innermountain Regional winners for best weekly news broadcast. In March 2018, the team will travel to Nashville, TN to compete against six other regional winners for the National Excellence Broadcast title. In 2017, students from the media program also won first place in the Crazy 8s Broadcast News Magazine category at the 2017 Student Television Network (STN) International Convention.
Faculty advisors for the student teams included: Marissa Prentice, advisor for Centennial Student News (broadcast); Melanie Stuart, advisor for the Talon (yearbook); and Amie Kraenzel, advisor for the Quill (newspaper).