Alexandria Student Newspaper Earns State, National Awards For Investigations, Stories

ALEXANDRIA, VA — After fighting censorship of student journalists earlier this year, Alexandria City High School's student newspaper Theogony has earned multiple state and national awards for various stories.

Theogony announced that the Virginia High School League has awarded it Trophy Class honors for its 2024-25 school year news coverage. In addition to receiving the league's highest honor for student media, Theogony received superior ratings in all categories and five individual awards.

James Libresco, a 2025 graduate now at Brown University, was named Virginia Student Journalist of the Year for 2024-25 by the Virginia High School League. Libresco was co-editor-in-chief with Casey Donahue, another 2025 graduate now attending the University of Delaware.

News Editor Isabel Shultz and current co-Editor-in-Chief Julia Gwin won first place in the Straight News Category for News for coverage of Alexandria City High School transportation issues titled "Transportation Challenges Ease." Gwin and Libresco won third place in the same category for their article "Five Northern Virginia School Districts Under Federal Investigation for Transgender Policies."

In the Human Interest/Personality category, Features Editor Nadja Duss earned second place for her first-person narrative feature of a beloved teacher titled "Pencils, Paper and Passion."

In the Review category, current co-Editor-in-Chief Rozalia Finkelstein won second place for her review "'Wicked' Defies Gravity and Expectations."

In the In-depth/Informative category, Libresco, former Staff Writer Noah Sternberg and Shultz won second place for a months-long investigation into the decisions to turn Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school. The story, "Inside the Tumultuous Vote to Eliminate Alexandria's K-8 Schools" detailed "misleading statements" by Alexandria City Public Schools officials on the K-8 conversion before the school board vote.

On the national level, the K-8 investigation story was one of 17 chosen as a Top Story of 2024-25 by School Newspapers Online. It was selected among 15,500 stories from high school and college newsrooms across the U.S.

School Newspapers Online also named Theogony a distinguished site and gave the student newspaper 11 total awards.

The student newspaper's content is written, edited, and produced by student journalists with guidance from Staff Adviser Kamilah Lawson. Earlier in 2025, Theogony spoke out against an ACPS proposed policy calling for an administrator to review "material that may be controversial" and principal approval for student articles to be published in non-ACPS publications. Theogony has called for the School Board to adopt the publication's recommended Voiced Unbound Policy. The Alexandria City School Board tabled the policy affecting ACPS student publications, indicating they would continue to work on the proposal in committee.

For more information on the student newspaper, visit actheogony.com.