Accolade adviser Tommy Li was recognized Friday, Feb. 7, as a finalist in a national journalism organization’s Teacher of the Year award – a first for any Sunny Hills instructor. 

“It gives me great pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as a Special Recognition Adviser in our 2025 National High School Journalism Teacher Awards program,” wrote Jennifer Ha, director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association [CSPA], in a formal letter sent via email to Li.

The four-paragraph digital correspondence, which also lists the other award-winners based on their work from the 2023-2024 school year, goes on to explain the impact of such a recognition and concludes with an unspecified number of applicants that the New York-based CSPA had reviewed for consideration of its annual Teacher of the Year competition.

“Your tremendous efforts toward improving scholastic journalism education are noteworthy. We hope this award will call deserved attention to your work and will also provide support for journalism studies and activities in your school,” Ha wrote. “This year, we received a record number of entries from extraordinarily accomplished instructors. Applications came in from around the country, from instructors representing programs of various sizes and in various stages of development.”

According to the email, the CSPA’s 2025 Teacher of the Year was awarded to Julia Satterthwaite, adviser of El Estoque, an online and news magazine program at Cupertino’s Monta Vista High School in Northern California.

Four journalism instructors – one of whom hailing from London – were awarded the second-level tier of recognition known as “Distinguished Adviser,” while three others joined Li in the third-level tier known as “Special Recognition Adviser.” The state with the most honored advisers was California with two.

With the honor, Li and the other awardees will be given a plaque at a Thursday, March 20, luncheon at Columbia University in New York, according to the letter. He also gets free admission to the CSPA spring convention at Columbia University from Wednesday, March 19, to Friday, March 21.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHER AWARD

While no interviews were conducted for CSPA’s awards program, to determine the tiers of recognition, an unspecified panel of judges reviewed applicants’ written responses to 10 short answer questions, some of which included the following:

• Please describe your school community, detailing how your class(es) and coverage reflect that population, and explain how your publication addresses diverse points of view.  Please also give examples of how you have built trust and shown transparency while broadening students’ perspectives through inclusive storytelling that incorporates equitable newsgathering and coverage.
• Please include a description of your role, philosophy of instruction, and how you work with your students. Please include your approach to journalism/media career education and discuss improvements or innovations you have made to the journalism program at your school, including what have been your “wins” and “challenges.”
• Please describe an instance or instances in the 2023-2024 academic year when challenging journalistic positions or decisions made by your publication(s) were opposed or supported by administrators, the local media, or the community. How did you respond?
• Please outline a pressing issue facing scholastic journalism and how you would address it as Teacher of the Year.

Besides having three or more years of experience as a journalism adviser – whether for a news product and/or a yearbook – the other eligibility requirements called for applicants’ submission of their updated resumes and support letters – up to three allowed.

“I am humbled to receive such a recognition,” The Accolade adviser said. “The application process is quite exhaustive, as I had to spend a lot of my time near the end of the fall semester in December answering those questions.

“I am also grateful to those who were willing to write my support letter. I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far in the process without their powerful words.”

A similar congratulatory email with information about the awards ceremony was sent to principal Craig Weinreich, who replied with the following email response: “Thank you so much for the great news. He has done an amazing job over the years with our journalism program!”

Li said he and his family are still trying to figure out budgeting for the trip’s costs, which will not only include the airfares but also the hotel stay.

“The good news is that most of my children will be on spring break,” he said. “I’ve also never had a chance to attend this annual convention before, so I am looking forward to learning from the convention workshops and networking with more journalism advisers so I can continue to improve.”

Although Li did not plan on telling his students about the honor until their return from the three-day Abraham Lincoln’s birthday holiday weekend, some of them found out through their Instagram notifications, and editors sent out congratulations to Li using the program’s Slack app.

ACCOLADE ALSO UP FOR AN AWARD AT CSPA CONVENTION

On Wednesday, Dec. 11, the CSPA announced its Crown Awards finalists on its Instagram. Compared to the past three consecutive years of nominations, this is the first time The Accolade landed a spot in the hybrid magazine category as the publication had produced newspapers in the past since its first issue on March 31, 1960.

VIDEO CUTLINE: Accolade adviser Tommy Li leads the staff to cheer in hopes of earning the Gold Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in March as they celebrate the award finalist title on Thursday, Dec. 19, during fourth period in Room 138. (Video by Noah Lee)

The Accolade will find out if it receives its first Gold or sixth Silver Crown plaque at the CSPA 101st Annual Spring Convention on Friday, March 21, at Columbia University. As of Friday, Feb. 7, no one on staff plans to attend the ceremony, which will be held at the end of Sunny Hills’ spring break.

A panel of judges recognized the work produced in the 2023-2024 school year, which included four specialty magazine issues and online news content. The nomination follows the National Scholastic Press Association’s Pacemaker plaque the program received last semester for those same print publications.

“All the nominations have been so special, but I have to admit this one is particularly rewarding because it was also with our specialty magazines that we produced for the first time last year,” said Jaimie Chun, the 2023-2024 editor-in-chief who’s a freshman at Northwestern University majoring in journalism and economics.

The online website was also recognized as a part of the honor. 

“I think our biggest obstacles came during our first issue when we were still trying to figure out the logistics of producing a magazine,” said Susie Kim, a freshman studying computer science at UCLA, who was the web editor-in-chief for the 2023-2024 school year. “It was difficult for us all because we had been trained to write and produce newspapers for the past three years, but I’m so glad everyone was able to adjust and follow along so well. I’m also very thankful we had Jaimie and Irene [Sheen] to lead our team fluidly.”

Web managing editor senior Justin Pak, who was the News editor in the previous school year, said he hopes to finally win a Gold Crown after years of only winning the Silver one. 

“I kind of want to end my senior year off with a Gold crown,” Pak said.