2020 Keystone Press Awards: Radnorite Excellence

Anne Griffin, Associate Editor

Radnorite won big at the 2020 Keystone Press Awards. Radnorite contributors won awards in major categories for feature story, sports story, feature photograph, and website design. The Keystone Press awards journalism across the state of Pennsylvania with Division VII focusing on high school contributions. The Student Keystone Media Awards contest recognizes “high school and college journalism that provides relevance, integrity, and initiative in serving readers.” To enter the contest, all submissions must be published in the school newspaper. 

Penn Wood High School, Shot by Ellie Davis

Ellie Davis tied for first place for her feature story: The Disparity within Pennsylvania’s Education System. For her article, sophomore Ellie Davis visited Penn Wood High School while researching the economic disparity between districts in the Commonwealth and the various implications of the inequality. Thanks to recent studies, she found that Pennsylvania is the worst state in the country when it comes to school funding inequity. Additionally, the Washington Post found that, as of 2015, there was a 33% difference in per-pupil funding between the best and worst Pennsylvania districts, which is not only the largest disparity in the country but also double second place, which has a 15% difference. Recently the Public Interest Law Center, has filed a case against the state to address the inequality. For research, she interviewed Jane Harbert, Superintendent of the William Penn School District, Jennifer Hoff, Penn Wood School Board President, Amy Goldman, the co-chair of the Government Relations and Communications Committee, and Michael Churchill, one of the lawyers working on the case at the Law Center. 

Jesse Conen won second place for his sports story: Radnor’s Fall Sports Roundup 2019. The article recapped Radnor High School’s fall sports seasons including Boy’s Football, Boy’s Soccer, Girl’s Field Hockey, Girl’s Soccer, Girl’s Volleyball, and Girl’s Tennis. The Radnor Raiders clinched a District 1 Class 5A playoff berth for the fourth consecutive year and featured a record-breaking performance by junior Jahmir Dixon for the most single-game receiving yards in program history (210 yards, 3 TDs vs Conestoga).

Elizabeth Chupein won second place for her feature photograph titled “LM Week 2019: The 123rd Meeting”.

Photo by Elizabeth Chupein

In the accompanying article written by Estelle Atkinson, under the same name, Estelle recounts LM week 2019. The theme was Disney’s High School Musical with freshman decorating the math wing with Gravity Falls and Descendants, juniors covered the language wing and international cafe with Phineas and Ferb and Teen Beach Movie posters. In the Social Studies wing, sophomores proudly sported Camp Rock and Hannah Montana decorations. Seniors went all out with their High School Musical themed hallway. The featured photograph is of a senior boy crowdsurfing during the annual tradition of senior dance parties in the cafeteria during lunches and community period.

 

Estelle Atkinson, Anne Griffin, Andrew Rosin, and Mohen Li won second place for website design of the 2019 Radnorite site. Radnorite is led by Editor in Chief Estelle Atkinson and Associate Editor Anne Griffin. Over the summer, senior Estelle Atkinson and junior Anne Griffin created an entirely new website design that would best showcase all facets of the paper including Radnor Beat, for school/community pertinent pieces, Currents, Opinion, Sports, Arts, Personals, and the Radish. The Radish is a satirical sub-site that operates within Radnorite. The Radish page was created by Radish Editor junior Andrew Rosin and Radish Associate Editor junior Mohen Li.

Radnorite is proud to write for the Radnor community and will continue to pursue accurate, engaging, and timely pieces for all of our readers.