Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Clarke Central High School - ODYSSEY Media Group Entry Title: Stepping towards success Entry Credit: Violet Cantarella Judge Comment: The lead drew me in and set the scene. The feature structure is near flawless. The sources' quotes are compelling. The mix of the historic and modern weave together to tell a compelling story that makes me not only want to see a step show but do some dancing myself. The multimedia compliments the writing perfectly.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Midtown High School - The Southerner Entry Title: Alum Ivan Allen Jr. leaves lasting impact as Atlanta mayor Entry Credit: Sierra Pape Judge Comment: Excellent research and reporting weave together to make a compelling historical profile feature piece. Framing the piece around how students can learn from this alum today was perfection.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Cedar Shoals High School - BluePrints Entry Title: Behind the brands Entry Credit: Camari Stevenson Judge Comment: This trend piece is such an interesting showcase of students' talents. Each student designer could stand alone as its own profile, but taken together, it's an even stronger piece to show the variety of reasons and methods for fashion design among such young designers.
Place Name: Fourth Place Contestant Name: Wando High School - Tribal Tribune Online Entry Title: A March Into Blissful Revenge Entry Credit: Emma Stanton Judge Comment: The theme stands out in this piece. It's lovely to see a story about winning that isn't necessarily first place. Improving, moving up--that is also winning. Solid feature structure. Great scene-setting lead.
Place Name: Fifth Place Contestant Name: Clements High School - The RoundUp Entry Title: Preparing The Food, Serving Up Smiles, Brightening Our Days Entry Credit: Karen Wei, Grace Hu Judge Comment: Excellent feature structure and use of creative writing tactics to make the story more alive and colorful. The theme of the kitchen staff being part of the overall positive culture of the school works so well. Great use of sub headings to divide a long piece. The quotes add so much human interest.
Competition Comment: There were so many strong pieces in this contest. So many beyond the top five were also of award-winning quality. These students are writing at professional or near-professional levels, and I am so impressed with the stories they are pursuing. The multimedia work was also impressive, bringing in that visual storytelling to complement excellent writing.
