Modesto high schools win acclaim for magazine, broadcasts, yearbooks

Modesto high schoolers brought home the gold from the National High School Journalism Convention. Downey High’s news magazine team, Gregori High’s broadcasters and Enochs High yearbook students all unpacked trophies last week after returning from Washington, D.C.

Downey’s Realm news magazine’s inaugural 2013 cover captured third place in the National Scholastic Press Association Design of the Year awards. The design features a photo by senior Matthew Fenn of campus supervisor Guillermo Romo defending the hall as student hands fill the windows, illustrating a school controversy, said new magazine class teacher Rene Guevara.

“Last year they closed the hallways during lunch, and they had never done that before. So at the beginning of school we talked about, what is the big thing, what is everybody talking about? It was the hallways,” Guevara said Friday. Hands pressing on the window were meant to give the picture a zombie twist, he said. “‘Walking Dead’ was really popular then,” he added with a chuckle.

The cover has a pull-you-in title, “Lunch Hallway Closure: Why are they keeping us out?” But the article took a straight journalism approach, Guevara said. “It’s really explaining why they did that.”

Downey’s award, announced at the convention, was earned from among submissions from all schools last year, Guevara said. Students at the convention also competed in on-the-spot contests and with work they brought.

Gregori High broadcast seniors Tommy Tran and Julissa Kennedy created an online news package in a matter of hours. Interviews became a story with video, embedded audio quotes and crowdsourced opinions through a Twitter campaign promoted by Modesto schoolmates.

“I had to deal with pressure,” Kennedy said Friday. The experience made her more conscious of budgeting her time. “It’s more of, like you can manage it, the adrenaline rushes through you,” she said.

Tran did the contest alone the year before, and said he had a better idea of the time crunch. “There can’t really be excuses when people need to get their work in,” he said.

Ali Andronico tackled a social media project, posting YouTube videos, Instagrams, six-second Vines and 140-character Twitter feeds, all using her smartphone. “I really learned how to use social media to your advantage,” she said.

The team also won NSPA Broadcast Story of the Year awards for two Jag News Network pieces, one on the Gregori water system by Timothy Gallagher and Melissa Miranda, the other on the State Theatre by Gallagher and Sabrina Sordello.

Gregori’s big wins, however, were a 2014 NSPA Broadcast Pacemaker Winners first place for a Feb. 7 JNN segment that included a piece on a student’s illness, and a 2014 NSPA Best of Show third place win for its Oct. 31 newscast.

The broadcast class creates its Jag News segments as webcasts showing every other Friday. Students use an impressive array of state-of-the-art Macintosh computers and industry standard design programs. They work long days and weekends learning the craft, with all its technology, as well as the work ethic of journalism, students said.

To get in the class, they have to apply, complete with letters of recommendation and an interview with teacher Jim McCarthy. “Basically, I try to talk the kids out of it. Then I just see if that works,” he said. Those who persevere are the ones he’s looking for.

His wife, Tamra McCarthy, has a similar process to get parents on board for an intense year to fill her award-winning yearbook class at Enochs High. The McCarthys traveled to Washington, D.C., with 30 students, teaching workshops while there. They spend summers teaching seminars in their respective specialties nationwide, Tamra McCarthy said Thursday.

Her class produces the Wingspan, yearbook of the Enochs Eagles, that has won national honors in its size category from NSPA for four years running. The 2014 edition has not yet been judged for the nationwide competition, but took the top Best of Show prize at this month’s convention.

The prize means most, students said, because of the intense emotions and heartfelt stories they worked so hard to capture. But it also sends a message to classmates who missed the point.

“They said, ‘Why is it white? It’s going to get dirty.’ We took risks with this book. We took a lot of risks,” said senior Christan Santos.

The book’s white cover has its title, “It’s Complicated,” in a pile of black and gold words, a minimalist cover for a jampacked year. “It was the juxtaposition of all this space, being simple, and all these words. A visual stacking, a lot of layers for (stories with) a lot of layers,” said senior James Tyner, who worked on the page design.

The team planned a whimsical theme for the year, but the deaths of two football players over the summer changed everything. “That’s one of the things that makes this book so special, because we really had to do a 180,” Tamra McCarthy said.

The yearbook team covered a candlelight vigil and other tributes to the fallen players. “People you see on campus, so strong and tough. They were shaking and almost crying,” Santos said. “We really got to know these people’s lives. It wasn’t just a story for us.”

Getting to know the subjects of every story well, letting the layers unfold, became the group’s mantra. “You have to get to know your students, develop a relationship,” said yearbook interview consultant Jairei Olarte.

Photographers have to do the same, said Derek Li. “Don’t be afraid to get involved. You have to go back many times. We get up close and get amazing pictures,” he said.

The result is a lushly illustrated book with two-page spreads on the school’s new counseling center, human interest stories, fashion, sports and a running ribbon of six-word stories invited from all students.

“Everybody has a pep rally picture. We covered a student TP-ing cars in a parking lot, the (play) cast having burgers at a diner,” Santos said. “You need to turn that stranger into a story,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be a journalist and get to know all this.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Modesto high schools win acclaim for magazine, broadcasts, yearbooks."