12 West Side Story staffers win international sweepstakes, national awards from Quill and Scroll

Pictured left to right (front row): Michael Moonjely, Nina Elkadi, Simran Sarin, Eugenia Chen, (back row) Shawn Thacker, Kelsey Kerenan, Aaron Carter, Sharon Xiang

Pictured left to right (front row): Michael Moonjely, Nina Elkadi, Simran Sarin, Eugenia Chen, (back row) Shawn Thacker, Kelsey Kerenan, Aaron Carter, Sharon Xiang

For the second year in a row, Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists declared Eugenia Chen ’17 an International Sweepstakes Winner in Quill and Scroll’s Writing, Design and Photo Contest for her ad design titled “Hot House Yoga.” Chen, a designer on WSS staff, received the same honor last year for her ad design titled “Celebrate Prom with a Cupcake.”

Quill and Scroll also declared the following students as National Winners for their work:

  • Aaron Carter ’16 won in the sports writing category for “Making the cut.”
  • Nina Elkadi ’18 won in the feature writing category for “Constant connection.” Elkadi also won in the multimedia feature category for “Trump rally attracts supporters and protesters“–with additional reporting by Leah Dusterhoft ’17, Sarah Longmire ’17 and Michael Moonjely ’17.
  • Junhee Lee ’18 won in the profile category for “Sophia Chen.”
  • Kelsey Keranen ’16, Moonjely, Shawn Thacker ’18 and Sharon Xiang ’16 won in the in-depth team reporting category for their article titled “What next?
  • Consuelo Mendoza ’16 won in the editorial writing category for “Gender-neutral bathroom.”
  • Simran Sarin ’17 won in the cover design category for “What next?
  • Chen received 2nd place in the national blogging competition for her blog, The Chen KitCHEN.
  • Sarin received 3rd place in the national blogging competition for her blog, Simply Gestalt.

Winners are eligible to apply for one of the $500-$1500 Quill and Scroll journalism scholarships.

There were a total of 1938 entries in this competition in all 21 divisions, with a total of 225 entries selected as National Winners and 279 individual student winners in all categories. The categories include: editorial writing, editorial cartooning, news writing, news feature photography, sports photography, feature writing, opinion columns, review columns, individual in-depth reporting, team in-depth reporting, advertisement, sports writing, photo illustration, infographics, multimedia-features, photo slideshow, cover design, profile, political writing, health, science and agriculture writing and blogging.

For information on past West Side Story Sweepstakes and National winners, go to wsspaper.com/awards.