The Iowa High School Press Association and the Iowa Newspaper Foundation chose Natalie Dunlap ’20 as Iowa’s Journalist of the Year. Along with the honor, she receives a scholarship and is now eligible for the National Journalist of the Year award and scholarship, which the Journalism Education Association will reveal at the national journalism convention in Nashville on April 18.

Dunlap created this website as part of the application process. The judges had this to say about Dunlap: “Natalie Dunlap stands out in a strong field of Iowa high school journalists in 2019-20 and well deserves being named the state’s high school Journalist of the Year. She demonstrates a wide spectrum when it comes to skills necessary to produce solid, critical journalism in the 21^st century. She is thoughtful and transparent about the work her news staff produces. She demonstrates intelligence, resourcefulness and dedication in her Iowa entry, no doubt a reason she already is published in professional media such as the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Little Village magazine. She also carries great confidence in how she presents herself and her work. She is living the ideal she explains in her essay, when she writes, ‘The presence of a reporter’s notebook made me limitless in the questions I ask.'”

The first runner-up is Nina Lavenzzo-Stecopoulus from City High, the second runner-up is Taylor Siebert from Johnston High and the third runner-up is Grace Halpunik from Pleasant Valley High.