The results of the 30th Annual Dallas Morning News High School Journalism Competition were announced yesterday afternoon. This year’s contest included nearly 500 entries from 24 schools. The Eagle Edition did a fantastic job! The staff received three first-place awards and two finalist awards. Here are the results and comments from the judges:

Blair Batson '21, First Place for Page Design Portfolio
"Blair’s entry was quite simply amazing. While her pages are eye-catching, they aren’t overly designed where the content plays second fiddle to the look. Her portfolio shows a restrained use of color, multiple fonts and other gimmicky design traps that we all fall into. Her fun design on an important topic as in her Life’s Lessons page is notable. She took a lot of copy and made it enticing with ragged right type, display quotes. Her Memory Lane page was outstanding."

Jiaying Fu '21, First Place for Best Pandemic Coverage
"Really great job getting international sources that are still connected to your school. We also liked that you got health advice and information from people within your school. Nice job writing clearly and tightly."

Carolyn Langford '22, First Place for News Reporting
"We really liked this story’s fresh angle as well as the extensive reporting that made it a solid national piece. ... This story had a great angle and was well executed!"

Emily Lichty '22, Page Design Portfolio Finalist
"Emily’s portfolio is wonderful work. Her Pie Palooza page is inviting, fun, and does what it’s supposed to do: It makes me want to go to each of those places for a slice. Her Wrestling for the White House spread is smart and put together very well. And her use of a five-column social media bans illustration works very well on the page. Emily treats features and news appropriately. She has fun with pies, but tones down the gimmicks on her straight news pages and lets the content do the work."

Eagle Edition, Best Newspaper Finalist
"We felt that Eagle Edition did a wonderful job at covering stories that were timely and relevant, especially in its election issue. The staff kept its audience in mind, covering politics, the pandemic, social justice and other pressing issues through the lens of student life. The editors were always asking: How is this going to have an impact on students? The Eagle Edition isn’t afraid to run bold illustrations on its cover and use helpful graphics inside.

Please congratulate these students and the entire Eagle Edition staff for the terrific job that they are doing!

For the Dallas Morning News press release and to read more about all the awards, please go to DMN High School Competition.