County’s Top Student Journalists Honored

An expose of widespread cheating and a story about a librarian who won $25,000 for doing good work were two of the winners announced Wednesday at a high school journalism awards ceremony at The Times’ editorial office in Ventura.

Eight students from high schools throughout the county and a Thousand Oaks campus newspaper were recipients of the third annual Los Angeles Times Ventura County High School Journalism Awards.

“Believe in what you do and listen to the people you are writing about,” Anna Gorman, the edition’s education writer, said in a speech.

Gorman emphasized the importance of journalists’ having passion, compassion and purpose.

Edition Editor Bill Overend awarded a $1,000 check to the representatives of The Lancer, Thousand Oaks High School’s student newspaper, which was honored for overall excellence for a second consecutive year.

Nick Edwards of Adolfo Camarillo High School won first place for his feature story on cheating, “Cutting Corners: Taking the Easy Way Out,” in the campus newspaper, The Stinger.

The story was a revealing look at a poll that showed 95% of Camarillo High’s students “admitted to some sort of cheating, whether it was copying homework or looking at a peer’s paper during a test.”

Edwards also shared a first place award for editorial excellence with fellow staffers Mike Oliver and Scott Sundvall for an opinion piece about censorship by the school’s administration.

Another Camarillo High winner was Anna Campbell, who took first-place honors in both feature and sports photography categories for her pictures of a student musical performance and of the school wrestling team.

Melissa Chandler won for her news story on Channel Islands High School librarian Barbara Simmons, who received an award from the Milken Foundation; and Yalda Afshar of Westlake High School snagged top honors in sports writing for her piece about the school’s championship football team.

Camarillo High students also swept top honors for entertainment writing and cartooning.

Ryan Wemyss won for his illustrations relating to campus searches, and Chris Kuhlman won for a review of the Brad Pitt-Edward Norton movie “Fight Club.”

The students received $250 as part of their award. More than 100 entries were received.

Three college students pursuing communications-based degrees also won scholarships, based on essays and recommendations.

Princess Banks and Monique Gaznick, students at UC Santa Barbara, each won $5,000 scholarships; and Oxnard College student Carlos Mora received $750.