As a continuing feature, The Accolade delves into the origins of Sunny Hills culture or landmarks. This time, we take a look at our own program as we promote the Journalism Education Association’s Scholastic Journalism Week’s theme, “Power of the Press,” Feb. 24-28. We send editor-in-chief senior Alexxa Berumen to investigate how The Accolade got its name and how it has endured to reach its 65th year of publishing. We also have assigned our other staff writers to look into the origin of an “Accolade St.” sign in staff photos appearing in the yearbook during the 1990s and how the program has impacted teachers who are Acco alum.
“WHY THE ACCOLADE?”
Those words appeared as the title of a brief editorial on page two of the first issue of the Sunny Hills High School newspaper.
“When the journalism class began to select a name for the paper, we wanted most of all a name which would denote a serious approach, a name which would indicate our desire for quality. … Naturally, it was important for the paper’s name to tie in with the school name,” wrote the anonymous author of the first two paragraphs of the March 31, 1960, article that appeared atop the left corner of the page.
The writer then continued that second paragraph with the following: “Remembering that we think of Lancers as a kind of knight, the connection is not hard to see, for the accolade was the name of the action which climaxed the ceremony of conferring knight-hood.”
The five-paragraph text concludes with these sentences: “We pledge loyalty to our school and we will strive to bring honor to our school through the quality of our work. The Accolade has class, indicates service with honor and represents our ideal. That’s why The Accolade!”
That was the easy part in figuring out how the school newspaper (now a news magazine) inherited its moniker. But in the more than six decades of existence and application of the “Power of the Press,” it takes some more digging to obtain the answers to the following questions:
- How many advisers have overseen this program to ensure its longevity and to teach students what it means to apply the Constitution’s First Amendment that guarantees a “freedom of the press”?
- How long did it take before the program started earning local, regional, state and national recognition to live up to the expectations of its name and to capture students’ interest to join an award-winning team?
- How and when did The Accolade transition from fully in print to posting in-depth stories regularly on our online news website?
- How and why the publication evolved from a nine-inch-wide-by-12.5-inch-high, four-page tabloid in March 1960 to a 13.5-inch-wide-by-22-inch-high six-page broadsheet in August 1999? (That’s also the same school year that principal Craig Weinreich was hired as an English teacher here.)
THE GHOSTS OF ADVISERS PAST
Ten advisers have helped support the endeavor of honoring the school and the program’s name, never proving to be an easy task.
“When you’re a journalism teacher, you’re kind of alone,” said Kimberley Harris, who was first hired upon graduating with an English degree from California State University, Fullerton, in 1993 and took a break after the 1996-1997 school year following the death of one of her journalism students, only to return from 1999-2001. “Your colleagues don’t really understand what’s involved in producing something like The Accolade.
“Sometimes teachers didn’t understand that The Accolade wasn’t just a newsletter for listing the names of award winners and league champions,” Harris said. “They sometimes criticized me for stories they didn’t like when it was actually my job to allow students to publish stories that people might not like.”
When she began teaching journalism here, she had to fill the shoes of her predecessor, Carol Hallenbeck, who ended up becoming a legend in Acco lore for putting the program on the map.
Hallenbeck took over from Ben Jones in 1969 and expanded the staff size as well as the number of issues per school year before her last year in 1993.
The former instructor was a mystery to many following the end of her teaching career, as no one knew how to reach her. However, according to an obituary published by The Orange County Register, Hallenbeck died on Sunday, Feb. 2.
“Many Acco alum who were on her staff have often asked me about her and if I knew how to reach her,” said Tommy Li, the current adviser. “I have met her before when I first started teaching here in the 2001-2002 school year, and I remember she was quite a diminutive lady; soft-spoken but very direct when speaking to you.
“I was awed by her presence, especially since I’ve heard stories from former Acco staffers who worked with her,” Li said. “The legend goes that she was able to recruit large numbers to join her staff by confidently telling students, ‘Join journalism, and I can get you into Harvard, Yale or Princeton.’”
Harris — a journalism adviser at Fullerton Union High School since 2012 — agreed, adding that Hollenbeck was the one to develop the program and make a name for itself in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. Sunny Hills became the only campus among eight to offer a beginning journalism class for one period and an advanced one for another. That’s still the case today though a combined class occurred in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years.
“We were like a powerhouse academic school,” said Harris, who reflected on then-principal George Giokaris’ statement to her upon her hiring. “He was very much about just being careful because you know that you’re an easy target when you’re on top.”
The program also flourished under Harris’ leadership. For the first time, it earned recognition from The Los Angeles Times. The staff under her also took home the top trophy in the Orange County Journalism Education Association write-off contest twice.
“My students had to wear different hats, that they had to approach this as a journalist and not as a student,” she said.
After unforeseen circumstances in both the teacher’s life and on the staff, she said she decided to take time off after four years of overseeing the program, handing it over to another recent college graduate: SH alum Jennifer Kim in the fall of 1997.
Kim, who had no previous journalistic experience before accepting the position, said she decided to take journalism classes at California State University, Fullerton, to help her support her staff in guiding them through their scholastic journalism experiences.
Despite these efforts, the culture of the staff under Kim’s leadership was much different than that under her predecessors.
“The kids ran the entire Accolade, which is the way it should be anyway,” Kim said.
After her hiatus, Harris came back for another two years before handing the program over once again.
TOMMY (LI) TIME
Harris’ time as adviser ended following the birth of her firstborn as she wished to stay home and raise him. The end of this time prompted the very beginning of a new one: The Tommy Li one.
Though it started in 2001, this award-winning time was split into two periods: 2001-2008 and 2017-present.
The Accolade was already well-established when Li took over in the early 2000s; however, this was merely a starting point.
With many years of journalistic experience, from his time majoring in print journalism and English at USC (including being the Daily Trojan editor-in-chief in his senior year) to his job as a reporter for the San Bernardino Sun and the Los Angeles Times, Li started his non-stop efforts to get the staff to the award-winning level it currently resides at.
“I am forever grateful that a Sunny Hills administrator was willing to select me to take over for Mrs. Harris despite my having only one year of experience as a journalism teacher/adviser,” he said.
Room 138 marked the beginning of his journey as an adviser and soon became a second home as he worked to meet his aspirations of an award-winning staff.
“That’s always been a goal of mine — to get this program to win what is the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize for scholastic journalists – whether it’s a National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker [NSPA] or a Columbia Scholastic Press Association [CSPA] Crown award,” said Li, who became a first-year adviser at Orange High School before getting hired here. “That’s when we will be recognized as the best of the best, and I’m quite thrilled to see that some judges have noticed that in what we’ve produced the last few years in my second stint as an adviser here.”
The benefit of having two separate levels of journalism classes played in the adviser’s favor as it did for the many previous advisers here.
However, for various reasons, the program suffered from low enrollment starting the 2006-2007 school year, prompting administrators to combine the two journalism level classes for the first time since most likely when the program started in 1960.
The difficulty of adjusting to teaching a combined intro and advanced level classes caused Li and his staff to become more proactive in recruiting students to join both levels the next school year.
This change prompted Li to rally for more students to join with the following year marking the first time in SH history that there were three separate journalism classes.
Not long after, the class size shrank, and the classes were once again combined.
“To continue to be competitive nationally, regionally and locally, we need the two classes separated so I can spend one hour or so for each level and to give them guidance/teach them how to write, etc.,” he said. “After that first year of teaching a combined class, it confirmed my suspicions that I would be stretched too much.”
For family reasons, Li resigned as adviser, but school officials accepted his request to return in the 2017-2018 school year. In the meantime, English teacher Charlene Dagampat took over from 2008-2009. The next year, yearbook adviser Lindsay Safe watched over The Accolade until Li’s eventual return.
“I felt I wasn’t done teaching, training and encouraging the efforts of our young journalism scholars,” he said. “I also was going to have my oldest child become a freshman here in the next school year, so I wanted her and my subsequent four other children to learn this craft from me so we can continue to develop the program and bring it back to national prominence.”
And so he did. By the 2019-2020 school year, CSPA nominated The Accolade for a Crown award — the first time since 2006. Staffers used what they learned from interviewing to feature writing skills to produce exposes about the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of Asian hate because of fears over the virus.
For the first time, the program earned three NSPA Pacemaker finalist nominations in a span of four years — two consecutive years (work produced in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years) with a Pacemaker plaque. In terms of CSPA, Li’s students racked up four CSPA Silver Crown plaques (2006, 2020, 2022 and 2023).
Looking back, Harris said she is relieved that the program continued to prosper, and even reach new heights, even after her time there.
“It is so delightful for me to have the same reaction that Carol Hallenbeck must have had when, you know, she stepped away and she’s like, ‘I don’t know this person, but OK, I hope it works,’” she said.
THE ONLINE TRANSITION
Many recognize the new, all-color glossy magazines that the program is currently publishing.
Upperclassmen may even remember their first years on campus receiving a 16-page, inky newspaper in their third-period classes.
Prior to the more modern programs such as Adobe InDesign and Photoshop that The Accolade has been using to produce its issues since the late 1990s, the staff started off by utilizing much more manual methods instead.
The first several editions of the school newspapers from the 1960s-1980s required editors to cut out and paste headlines and body text printed from a typesetter, which were then transferred onto larger poster boards fit to be delivered or picked up by the printer, Harris and Li said. Every little pica — a unit of measure utilized in journalism — was of importance when crafting the award-winning products the program was known for.
“It was really a lot of work,” she said.
Working with Adobe Pagemaker from 1985 and beyond, which eventually transitioned to InDesign, late nights have never been uncommon for the hardworking staff.
“When I was here, we used to stay until midnight, four nights a week, especially when it was time for that, for the edition to come out, we would be here,” Kim said.
Before Li left his adviser position in the fall of 2008, he predicted in an article that the future of journalism would be online. High school journalists would need to learn how to produce news in a faster manner since anyone can access the internet at any time.
But Li never had a chance to usher in such a transition. Instead, that opportunity opened up for yearbook adviser Lindsay Safe, who agreed to also helm the school newspaper two school years after Li’s departure.
Though changes in newspaper size occurred, the most historic change arrived under then-adviser Safe’s guidance in 2014.
The yearbook adviser said she first got the position because of her expressed interest in furthering student media on campus and set that as her goal as she managed both The Accolade and Helios, the school yearbook, at once.
However, her choice to modernize The Accolade with the transition to an online news website came as a result of comparing the progress of the program with that of other major competitors.
“I said, Look at all these award-winning schools all across the nation. Look at the schools in California that are doing this. Why aren’t we?” said Safe, who recalls referencing programs such as Redondo Union High School’s High Tide and Palo Alto High School’s Campanile.
The road to creating this website made the program easier but did come with its difficulties in making sure that all information is accurate and precise, she said.
“I remember it being a lot different,” said Safe, whose 2012-2013 captured the program’s second Pacemaker finalist nod in 2013. “It’s much different to print a newspaper and distribute it in the school, but once you put it online, it is open to everybody. You got a lot more people and a lot more eyes on you, so you really have to be mindful of that and make sure your reporting is spot on.”
With the online news website taking a pause upon Li’s return at the helm, it got rebooted in the 2018-2019 school year, and it has continued since, earning a Distinguished Site award from Student Newspapers Online [SNO] for three consecutive years.
In its 65th year, the debate of whether physical papers still have validity on a modern campus is ongoing. However, for The Accolade staffers like current managing editor senior Christine Yoo, print products will always hold a special place in their hearts.
“Even though a lot of people argue that a physical issue is like an extinct dinosaur that should be buried, I still think it’s important that people have a physical way of getting news,” Yoo said. “Still, online is just as important. Especially with our modernizing world, online is not only efficient, but it allows virtually anyone to read what we write.”
65 YEARS IN PRINT
For many, The Accolade is more than just a student publication; it holds memories and stories that can only be unlocked through the old, inky pages and cut-and-pasted headlines from what the journalism world calls “the morgue.”
“Class reunion groups from the ’60s and ’70s still ask to borrow one of our bound editions from that time period so that the alum can browse through the issues to take them down memory lane and to help them reminisce,” Li said.
Its longevity has made it one of the oldest on the campus, prompting an even bigger impact for current students and alumni alike. Each daily current event or award-winning story says something about the program’s historic nature, Li said.
“We are making history every day in what we post online or publish in print,” the adviser said. “Not many programs other than the Associated Student Body and [Helios], which had its first annual a year later than us, can tout a record of our school’s history like we can.”
Even with Generation Z’s disregard for online and paper products, the staff believes that print editions still hold an undeniable impact on the campus for those who decide to pick up a copy.
“I think the program makes an impact on our campus as it continues to spread relevant and important news,” said Yoo, who has earned seven awards during her time on staff. “Whether we’re reporting on-campus events or issues surrounding our community, The Accolade is successful in making sure our students and staff are aware.”
Yoo added that without such a highly academic student body, the publication would not be nearly as successful as it is 65 years later.
“Our staff is tightly knit, and I think determination and ambition is a big part of our culture,” she said. “Whether we’re working on a magazine during late nights or vigorously writing stories for an online cycle, working hard is a huge part of our culture.”
Li agrees with Yoo’s sentiment, adding that his predecessors’ value of California Ed Code 48907 — the 1970s state policy that grants rights to student journalists — has been one of the main backbones in keeping The Accolade going.
“Being around for 65 years isn’t surprising; that’s because most of the advisers in this program have been stellar and value journalism and the freedom of the press, also known as the Fourth Estate,” he said. “We’ve also continued to attract motivated students to the staff each year, so that has kept the program going as well.”
Other staff members, such as assistant News editor junior Kevin Lee, say it’s an honor to be a part of such a historic and prominent publication.
“I feel awed as the program that I am a part of right now has such a deep history. While working on stories for The Accolade, finding information and making relationships while interviewing has been valuable to my high school experience,” said Lee, who has earned two Best of SNO awards in his two years of being on staff. “I am one hundred percent sure that The Accolade will lead to positive results when applying to my dream universities.”
The profound impact that being on the staff of The Accolade has outweighs the stress it may bring, Harris said.
“[In high school], you won’t remember every history test or science project, but when you have a powerful interview and someone tells you their story, and you stay up until 1 in the morning and get that feature lead you know written, and you publish it, and then people respond to it — you remember those moments 20 years later,” Harris said.
