The IWPA is excited to announce the winners of our 2022 High School Communications Contest!

This year, we had 90 entries from a total of 8 high schools, and we are excited to announce the winner of the Silver Pen award for the most points across categories is Huntley High School!

First Place winners go on to compete in the National Federation of Press Women’s High School Communications Contest. See below for the list of all the winners from different schools. Congratulations to all the winners!

Homewood-Flossmoor High School

First Place

Erik Dedo, Dylan Barnas, Radio / Television Interview or Talk Show, “Sports Chat”

Ella Aceves, Eliya Hobson, Video Sports Story, “HF Fields Get Turf”

Second Place

Eliya Hobson, Ella Aceves, Video News Story

Third Place

Citlally Gabriel, Kennedy Hardy, Video News Story

Noah Clausing, Radio / Television Interview or Talk Show

Huntley High School

First Place

Ellie Armstrong, Kate Alvarado, Amelia Pozniak, Editorial, “Credit Recovery: The Easy Way Out”

Delaney Cairns, Sports Story, “Dancer jumps back in after ATV accident”

Sara Gebka, Reviews, “New ‘Hype House’ show is over-hyped”

Sara Gebka, Cartooning, “Sexual Harassment Graphic”

Jacob Habel, Video News Story, “HHS Journalism Team Wins IHSA State”

Sydney Laput, Yearbook Photo, “Ready, Aim, Fire”

Second Place

Maggie Armstrong, Sports Story

Maggie Armstrong, Reviews

Ashley Foster, Yearbook Copywriting

Sara Gebka, Cartooning

Jacob Habel, Video Feature Story

Jessica Smith, Opinion

Third Place

Ellie Armstrong, Kate Alvarado, Amelia Pozniak, Editorial

Ava Burns, Yearbook Copywriting

Sara Gebka, Cartooning

Ally Jorgensen, Opinion

Ava Peters, News Story

Jessica Smith, Reviews

Honorable Mention

Olivia Archer, Reviews

Ellie Armstrong, Kate Alvarado, Amelia Pozniak, Editorial

Maggie Armstrong, Opinion

Nikki Darnall, Feature Story

Ally Jorgensen, Reviews

Abby Panier, Opinion

Abby Panier, News Story

Madeline Pomis, Reviews

McHenry Community High School

First Place

Kyla Henige, Feature Story, “You are not alone”

Leylah Moreno, Video Feature Story, “ESports Prepares for a Competitive Season”

Metea Valley High School

First Place

Olivia Gaziano, Opinion, “See Something, say something: administrators take no action”

Second Place

Sofia Jubraj, Tanay Pant, Christina Guckel, Feature Story

Honorable Mention

Sydney Burleyson, Sarah Holzman, Reviews

Roycemore School

First Place

Ronan McGuire, Yearbook Copywriting, “What’re Your Pronouns?”

Saint Viator High School

Second Place

Madeline Dauphin, Sean McLaughlin, Double-Truck Layout

Honorable Mention

Anthony Pretto, Sports Story

Stevenson High School

First Place

Collin Fan, Shannon Moser, Vivian Zhu, News Story, “Safely Back to School”

Jenny Huang, Aayushi Wadhawan, Graphics / Photo Illustration, “Killing the Game”

Natalie King, Malini Pillai, Double-Truck Layout, “COV-Ingenious or COV-Ignorance?”

Shannon Moser, Kyla Smith, Single-Page Layout, “Worlds Fair”

Second Place

Sophia Ismail, Elizabeth Yuan, News Story

Raghav Khosla, Sabrina Xue, Radio / Television Interview or Talk Show

Aayushi Wadhawan, Kelly Liu, Editorial

Third Place

Bayarmaa Bat-erdene, Angela Guo, Sports Story

Vaasu Kakuturu, Kelly Liu, Surya Sethi, Ava Winber, Feature Story

Matt McGowan, Shannon Moser, Sarah Zhang, Sabrina Xue, Double-Truck Layout

Honorable Mention

Sophia Ismail, Gaurish Lakhanpal, Single-Page Layout

Shannon Moser, Helen Oriatti-Bruns, Cartooning

Surya Sethi, Vaasu Kakuturu, Editorial

Jasmine Sun, Ava Winber, Reviews

Thea Surya, Lance Locker, Helen Oriatti-Bruns, Double-Truck Layout