The Bronx River News staff won four Newsies awards at Baruch College’s annual journalism conference for New York City public high schools on April 25.
In the New Newspaper category:
- Junior Tahmina Marjan and sophomore Zoe Reyes won first place in the national and world news category for their “Financial Aid or Possible Deportation’’ article. The story, which also won a national SNO award from a news hosting site, was accompanied by an illustration created by Hawaou Kobeogo.
- Senior Hashan Chowdhury won second place for opinion writing for his column on the allure and dangers of scooters.
- Junior Jamal Quinones, the photo editor, won second place in the photojournalism category for a picture celebrating cultural heritage during a town hall event.
- Led by senior editors Fahima Akter and Cesar Jimenez, the paper won second place for Best Overall Newspaper. During the presentation, Lathania Williams’ reporting on ICE’s impact on the community was cited as an example of the paper’s important work.
Cesar, a senior who started writing for the newspaper as a sophomore, is proud of the newspaper’s progress since its debut in November 2021.
“We’ve grown as a community, not only as in the size of the staff,” said Cesar, the paper’s editor-in-chief. “As a team, we help each other,” he said, explaining that he appreciates the brainstorming that helps the staff create stories that engage others and pull people in.
“A successful newspaper for us is a privilege but also a demonstration of all the hard work that the staff has put in throughout the years,” he said.
Zoe, who attended the conference, relished picking up her first-place award in person at Baruch College in Manhattan. “Wow, I really did that!” she said.
Hawaou, who also attended the conference, created the illustration that accompanied Zoe and Tahmina’s article about the fears some students faced when applying for financial aid for college. “I feel it impacts a lot of my community’s future and is a big reward,’’ she said. “I am happy with the work put into it and how my drawing contributed to the story. I just knew this was going to be a breakthrough.”
The workshops at the conference covered a range of topics, including photojournalism, writing and editing. The event allowed students from different high schools to network, share ideas, gain from each other’s experiences and congratulate others on wins.
“The conference was really helpful and informative,’’ said Jomayra Amparo, a junior who joined the newspaper last year. “ A lot of us will be using the new tips to help us grow as a newspaper.”
The student-led staff is already looking forward to making plans for topics to cover next school year. And that’s how it should be according to Cesar: “Students are the future and we are what’s going to come tomorrow,’’ he said.
