For the second time in four years, The Accolade won a first-place plaque for its online news website as part of the Southern California Journalism Education Association’s [SCJEA] annual student media competition.

“I’m really glad that the judges liked our new website design and thought positively of it,” web editor-in-chief senior Susie Kim said. “I also tried to implement a lot of new elements onto our website this year too, like interactive multimedia and more podcasts, so I think all those efforts also paid off.”

The journalism program’s online news website, which last took home the California All-Stars award for the same category in 2021, beat out second-place winner, The Pearl Post, from Daniel Pearl Magnet in Lake Balboa and third-place finisher, The Mirror, from Van Nuys High School. Both are in Los Angeles County.

The California All-Stars contest calls for high school journalism programs from as far south as San Diego County to as far east as the Inland Empire to as far west as Ventura County to digitally submit entries in all aspects of media. Besides online news websites, journalism advisers can digitally submit two PDF issues of their publication from August 2023-January 2024 as well as broadcast news entries.

For print, The Accolade placed third behind the overall winner, The Mirror. Orange County’s Northwood Howler from Northwood High School in Irvine placed second. In the broadcast category, Sunny Hills Sunny Side Up’s episode 10 came in second for a second year in a row.

First place in broadcast went to West Covina High School with Van Nuys High School coming in third.

“I told my staff at the start of the school year that we would place a heavier emphasis on our online presence, and I’m proud that they responded to the call,” said Accolade adviser Tommy Li, who accepted the plaque and third-place certificate during the Saturday, April 6, awards ceremony held at California State University Long Beach. “We also came into the competition with momentum since our online news website also captured a Best of Show plaque at the Orange County level two months before in February.

“And even though we did not get an online Pacemaker finalist nomination from the National Scholastic Press Association, we still have one more regional competition to look forward to in June. It would be great if we could break through and win a trophy for that one.”

Before the awards presentation, student journalists competed in on-the-spot contests ranging from writing to photography to videography.

Ten Accolade students attended the event, seven of whom received either a medal or a certificate for placing in the Top 10:

• First-place newspaper layout medal: assistant Arts & Entertainment editor junior Nathan Lee
• Third-place feature writing medal: Spotlight co-editor junior Alexxa Berumen 
• Eighth-place news writing certificate: News editor junior Justin Pak
• Tenth-place editorial writing certificate: Spotlight co-editor junior Seowon Han
• Excellent Novice News writing certificate: staff reporter junior Kayden Kim
• Honorable mention Novice News writing certificate: staff reporter sophomore Kevin Lee

Additionally, videographer junior Jin Son earned a first-place medal in broadcast story with The Accolade’s Barbie Bungee video.

For the first time in school history, Oxford Academy won the Sweepstakes portion of the competition, beating last year’s winner, Portola High School. 

“On-the-spot writing is something that I’m hoping my staff can improve on in the next few years before I retire,” Li said. “We haven’t won a Sweepstakes trophy in this competition since 2005, so hopefully the next set of students who qualify will help us end this slump not just at this level, but at our regional level as well.”

Han said another way for future teams to improve is being better prepared.

“I think making sure everyone fully understands their categories in terms of what kind of stories and skills it requires and making sure they have the experience for it before diving into the write-offs would help us win,” she said.