East High Journalists Win Major State Awards

The Cardinal News, Wauwatosa East High School’s student newspaper, has been honored with seven awards in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s High School Better Newspaper Contest.

The student publication won two first-place awards, including one in the General Excellence category, along with two second-place and three third-place awards, all in Group B of the contest.

Each student newspaper winning first place for General Excellence is awarded a $1,000 Branen Scholarship, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation’s only family-sponsored award. Awarded annually since 1992, it is named for William E. Branen, former publisher and president of the weekly Burlington Standard Press.

Along with the first place General Excellence award, the Cardinal News also won first place in Graphics for “Sarah Strong” by Annie Burnett, the story of how the whole school rallied in support of student Sarah Pease, who was undergoing treatment for acute leukemia.

The paper captured second and third place in the Freedom of Information Award category. Kelley Annesley won second place for her piece entitled “Responsibilities of student press must be recognized, respected,” and Girard Gorelick won third place for his piece “Newest local youth risk.”Annesley also won a second place award in the Best Advertising category for “Insulation Perfection.”

Capturing third-place awards were Annie Burnett in the category of General Reporting for “Students approve of legislation” and Franki Ludwig in the category of Photography for “Rehearsing on stage.”

The statewide Better Newspaper Contest recognizes excellence, encourages students to pursue journalism careers and acknowledges that simply participating in high school newspaper activities helps encourage lifelong learning and better citizenship.

Judges, including Wisconsin newspaper publishers, general managers, editors, reporters, photographers, copy editors and other staffers, determined winners in 11 categories drawn from schools in two divisions.