Journalism students from Castro Valley High School won multiple national, state and regional awards in the 2012-13 school year.
For the first time ever, The Olympian newspaper won a prestigious Quill and Scroll sweepstakes award. Senior Reyna Garcia edited an editorial about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre which the entire newspaper staff helped to write.
Other award winners from the national Quill and Scroll contest included:
* Senior Kate Pellegrini for her blog about the CVHS 2013 Close Up trip to President Obama’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.
* Junior Natalie Fazeli for a news story about school district budget cuts and layoffs
* and senior Reyna Garcia, senior Melody Moteabbed, senior Kristen Jensen, junior Joyce Liang and junior Leia Saelee for a package of stories about former CVHS students arrested on murder charges.
Olympian staff members also took two top awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for the first time.
Reyna Garcia’s and Melody Moteabbed’s murder article won first place in the best writing competition.
Tim Pak and Rebecca Fong, both 2012 CVHS graduates, won first place in the best photography contest for their photo package of the Every 15 Minutes drunk driving prevention event.
Finally, four students won awards from the Journalism Education Association of Northern California:
* Kristen Jensen for a news story about the growing number of students taking school service as a class rather than academic courses
* Kate Pellegrini for an editorial about high enrollment in the school service class
* Melody Moteabbed for a news photo of an American Sign Language class event
* and junior Lily Carrell for an editorial cartoon about the issue of guns in schools.
