Gold Standard: ASL’s high school publication goes from strength to strength in 2022-23

The Standard, our high school student publication, is the pride of ASL, and the successes of the team this past school year prove just how hard our journalists have been working.

At the fall National High School Journalism Convention, the team behind The Standard was recognized as a National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) 2022 Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist for the second year in a row. Our journalists also received a Gold Crown this spring from Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) for the fourth year in succession! The awards don’t stop there, with Grace ’23 winning first place in Editorial Leadership from NSPA. Describing her role as editor-in-chief as the “highlight of her ASL career,” Grace was also named the Journalism Education Association 2023 Journalist of the Year at the spring National High School Journalism Convention—the first international student to ever place as a finalist in the competition, with close to 200 entries from 35 states/regions.

As editor-in-chief, Grace is not responsible for writing content, but instead she facilitates the work of the team, and takes the role of mentor. She commented, “Watching my editors grow has been remarkable. In terms of balancing this role with the rest of my school responsibilities, I think it’s been really difficult, but so rewarding that it doesn’t feel like work.” Grace goes on to describe the biggest challenge when leading a team of journalists—the loneliness that sometimes strikes when taking on responsibility. She credits Louisa Avery (ASL 2019-present), high school journalism teacher and advisor behind The Standard, with being a constant source of inspiration and support.

Louisa describes working on The Standard as a unique opportunity for ASL students to develop research and storytelling skills, while working toward the common goal of creating authentic content for an audience. Beginner classes help students become not just great writers, but great leaders. 

Our journalists are consistently working on improving their abilities. Once beginner skills have been grasped, the team relies on mentoring each other. With 63 students taking part, this semester’s team is the largest in the magazine’s history. Winning awards from such reputable organizations proves what an amazing job they are doing—with real experts offering them unbiased recognition and celebrating their successes.

An honorable mention also goes to Daniel ’23, deputy editor-in-chief for the online publication, who took home an Excellence in Editorial Writing award at the fall National High School Journalism Convention for his piece on a Supreme Court case. Daniel was ecstatic—even more so because of the large number of competitors in the runnings. He was up against students from all over the US and from other international schools. Daniel lamented on what it means to create a great piece of journalism against the clock.

“It goes beyond just listening in English class. With persuasive writing, it’s about appealing to emotion and logic simultaneously, finding middle ground with the reader and building a connection from there.”

In a message to future students who may be thinking of joining The Standard team, Daniel highlighted the common misconception of needing to be interested in a career in journalism to take part. He stated that his interest in a future STEM-related profession did not dissuade him from getting involved in the publication and from developing the transferable skills it offers. He explains, “collaborating with your team helps you to learn so much from each other, including honing crucial writing skills and understanding what goes into running a website.”

Grace and Daniel aren’t the only Standard team members who have blown us away this school year:

CSPA 2023 Gold Circles for Digital Media contest winners:

• Eden ’24 won second place in Personal Opinion: On-campus Issues for “Environment, Explained: High School Classes Should Embrace More Paperless Opportunities”

• Eden ’24 won third place in Photo Slideshow for “The Soup Kitchen: Tackling Homelessness Since 1986”

• Mika Kobayashi ’22 won third place for General Feature for “Asian American Students Reflect on Life In and Out of the Pandemic”

• Eva ’24 won a Certificate of Merit in Informational Graphics for “Global Word Games Popularity Strikes Community”

CSPA 2022 Gold Circles for Newspaper certificate recipients: 

• Clara ’24 won Certificates of Merit in the News Feature category and in the Information Graphics category for “US Intensifies Abortion Restrictions in Texas, Mississippi”

• Zainab ’22 won a Certificate of Merit for the Cartoon “Gender Identity Acceptance Facilitates Self-Expression"

Private School Journalism Association contest winners:

• Ellie ’23 won first place Social Media Journalist of the Year

• Grace ’23 won first place Versatile Journalist of the Year

• Eden ’24 won first place Features Writer of the Year

• Zoe ’26 won first place Freshman of the Year

• Rudi ’24 won second place Junior of the Year

• Laila ’26 won third place Photographer of the Year

We are so proud of each and every student that took part and look forward to watching The Standard develop and our team continuing to wow even more journalistic associations. Grace described winning her most recent award as one of the happiest moments in her life so far.

“It meant so much to me individually but is also indicative of the entire team’s work—my portfolio included content that everyone contributed to. Journalism is my future, and my chosen college has an amazing publication I can’t wait to get involved with. To whoever takes over from me once my ASL journey ends… Remember the bigger picture, and the power of journalism as a whole. The philosophy of ‘we vs. I’ should permeate through all of your work—remember why you picked up the pen in the first place.”

Check out the rich and insightful content for yourself and see why The Standard has achieved so much this past school year.