Westfield High School's Newspaper Wins Gold Medal

By Lorre Korecky

Westfield High School’s student-run newspaper, Hi’s Eye, earned the Gold Medalist award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Both the hard copy edition of the weekly Hi’s Eye and the website version were praised for their quality during the 2014-2015 school year.

The judges wrote, “The paper has very good writing in the journalistic style.... The writers have strong research and interviewing techniques. The quotes reflect multiple sources interviewed and the transitions flow smoothly; this is a definite strength.”

Winning the Gold Medalist level as a hybrid newspaper/website program, the judges also highly rated the news website, www.whshiseye.com, citing the use of multimedia components such as video letters-to-the-editor and slideshows.

This honor marks yet another accolade for retiring Hi’s Eye advisor, Rosemary DiBattista.

According to Nicole Scimone, who shared the advisory role last year -

“Rosemary’s impact on our program has truly been legendary; under her guidance, we have expanded arts coverage, instituted an award-winning website, and updated the journalism curricula to reflect the demands of modern newsrooms.”

Scimone added, “Last year also marked the first year as Hi’s Eye advisor for Warren Hynes, who brings his passion for and experience in newswriting to expertly guide our reporters. Together with our staff of talented students, our journalism program was able to create an impressive product. We are excited to work with the new staff, which is already hard at work preparing our first issue and many innovations to our program.”

PHOTO CAPTION:

Hi’s Eye, Westfield High School’s student run weekly newspaper recently earned a Gold Medal from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Hard at work on a recent issue are (standing) Shanna Kelly and Rowan Oberman, and (seated l-r) Julia Ross, Teddy Mebane, and Catherine Simon, all seniors and Journalism 3 students at Westfield High School.