What started out with eight students in a one-semester academic journalism elective in 1994 has flourished into a highly competitive course. Journalism and Advanced Journalism students produce the high school newspaper, The Fourth Estate, which is a nationally recognized high school newspaper in the Santa Barbara County.
Nineteen years ago, Ms. Trish McHale came on board as adviser to the Fourth Estate. Under McHale’s tutelage, her journalism staffs have won numerous national awards.
Recognition and awards for the paper and website for the 2011-2012 school year have been the most prestigious of all.
The Fourth Estate took second place in the 2011 National Scholastic Press Association Design of the Year contest.
Student work was featured in the 17th edition of “Best of High School Press,” NSPA’s annual publication showcasing the best student work from its member publications.
The online newspaper website, www.thefourthestate.net, was a Pacemaker Award finalist in its first six months.
The newspaper won a NSPA First Class Award with two Marks of Distinction for Leadership and Coverage and Content.
It also received a Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Gold Medalist Certificate earning 940 out of 1,000 points, an All Columbian Honors for Visuals, and a CSPA Silver Crown Award.
CSPA’s Gold Circle Awards recognize superior work by student journalists in its annual competition for individual achievement. This year it received 10,444 entries from either print or online media from collegiate and high school journalists and awarded 960 winners with either First, Second, Third Place, or Certificate of Merit.
Fourth Estate staffers received two first place awards. Senior Olivia Berci received First Place for Op-Ed or news analysis page design: Portfolio of work and third place in the Personal opinion: Off-campus issue category.
Anastasia Antonova and Zoe Serbin took First Place in the Feature page design: Portfolio of Work category. They also received Gold Circle Awards in the single subject news or feature package, two pages, double-truck section.
Jessica Dusebout and Darla Etezadi took a third place award in News page design for their article “Bottom 1 percent takes the stage.”
Morgan Raith ’12 was recognized for her design, “Greetings from…senior projects” with a second place for Art/Illustration: Hand-drawn.
Staff members travel to the spring national conventions to further their journalism skills and to compete in Write Off competitions. They are making plans to attend this year’s convention, which takes place in San Francisco April 25-28.
