On April 16, the Big Sky Sun Journal reporting team attended the annual Montana High School Journalism Day at the University of Montana. This day is dedicated to high school journalists and is where students are picked to receive awards in numerous categories. Students also attend different seminars and workshops  led by journalism teachers at the University of Montana.

Big Sky High School received two staff awards, one in Online Pacesetter and also Newspaper Design. Following this, a number of reporters also received individual awards for their work. The recipients of these awards included:  

– Nya Myers, a junior at Big Sky, who won first place for her  sports feature story about Big Sky’s latest quarterback Eli Kasberg called: “‘I should do it for him’: Big Sky quarterback steps up after teammate’s injury, thrives as a starter.” 

–Madi Armerding, a senior for the paper, was awarded first place for a sports photography story on Big Sky’s home playoff volleyball game against Glacier. 

– Kiizh Stark, a junior,  won second place for her feature story, “Homophobia at BigSky” 

– Junior Lilli Branch, whose story was based on athletes’ mental health called: “Big Sky staff, coaches, students discuss how to manage stress in athletics,” also won second place. 

– Derek Johnson, who graduated last year, won third place for his opinion piece titled, “RFK Jr’s Claims about Autism are Misinformative.” 

– Ashlynn Lewis, a senior, won third place for her running editorial cartoon, “Eagle Words of Wisdom.” 

Kellen Currie: This year was the first year the Sun Journal staff submitted stories to be chosen for awards since spring of 2019. I think overall the event went pretty solid for our first year back. Everyone at the Sun Journal put in a ton of amazing work this year and we published some really impressive stories. Hearing our school’s name and some of our staff members’ names getting called for winning  stories was really cool to hear, and something that the entire team was excited about. 

Everyone within the Sun Journal had been looking forward to this day since the first day of school this year because we all knew that we had stories worthy to submit. The one part that I am upset about is that we were told that you can only submit one story per person. These rules were sent out to our advisor and we had followed this rule, submitting 19 stories, one story per person. This is not what other schools did, as many categories had the same students winning multiple places within one category.  It seems that this rule is not enforced at all and that you could submit as many stories as you please per student, per category. 

Nonetheless, I am really proud to be an editor for the Big Sky Sun Journal and to get to be a part  of the many amazing stories and work we put out, winning awards or not. Overall the event went very smoothly with everyone who attended having fun either at the awards or at the different class seminars learning about the many different aspects of  journalism. 

With me being a junior this year, it makes me really excited for next year. We have an amazing team within our newsroom and we are excited to publish even more stories next year and to continue growing our reputation.

Rudy Ochs: Journalism day is always super fun, and something I’ve been looking forward to all year. It’s a great chance for us students to get a glimpse into what it’s like to work as a real journalist, the different ways to make it work, and all the cool and unique stories you get the chance to tell. 

It’s so cool to see how much our newsroom has grown over the past couple of years. From a small group with no experience and who take months on stories, to two full classes full of people looking for stories. I’m super grateful for this class and proud of all my fellow students!

It was so cool to see our reporters winning awards, especially the ones that were new this year. Although we didn’t win as many awards as some of us expected, I think that it’s important to remember that that’s not the whole point of journalism. It’s so cool that we’ve revived the Sun Journal and continue to produce interesting and unique stories that only us as Big Sky Students can write.

I’m also a junior this year, so I’m excited to continue with the Sun Journal my senior year! I’m looking forward to continuing to grow our program and reading more of the stories from my fellow reporters!

Kade Dunning: I agree with Kellen and Rudy. Over the last two years, I can confidently say that everyone in our newsroom has worked incredibly hard to get this program off the ground again. Throughout the ups and downs of establishing ourselves and gaining trust in our community, we have persevered  and pushed hard for success. With J Day, we came into the event looking forward to seeing that hard work be recognized. As previously mentioned by Kellen, we were a bit hamstrung by our smaller portfolio of submissions due to a misinterpretation of the rules. Nonetheless, many of us still felt rewarded and satisfied with the awards we did receive. It was great to finally hear our name called after getting to just witness the event for the first time last year and not be able to participate.

Following the awards ceremony, Big Sky’s team came away with more knowledge about journalism than before due to the classes we attended that we fully intend to use to be even more successful next  year. Unfortunately, with me being a senior this year, I won’t be able to be a part of that push. However, I am incredibly confident in the students that will be a part of the Sun Journal next year. 

Before I joined this group, I had little to no knowledge about journalism itself. Two years later, I look back and see how much I have learned not only in regards to journalism, but also as a leader due to my role as an editor. Getting to report on the hard truths in our community alongside everyone a part of our team has been an amazing experience. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of it without everyone involved. Also, so much of the credit for our work goes to our advisor, Ms. Vincent. A retired reporter and current English teacher at Big Sky, she has always held us accountable and to a high standard. From the first day to the last, she has taught us what it means to be ethical reporters and honest people. So, as I said before, I am incredibly proud of this team, the work we have done, and I am so excited to see where they take this next.