Silver Chips, Silver Chips Online, Silver Quill win in journalism competitions

At the 2005 Maryland Scholastic Press Association's (MSPA) annual high school journalism convention, Silver Chips, Silver Chips Online and Silver Quill all won numerous awards for their literary journalistic work. In addition, Silver Chips' November 2005 issue placed second in the best-in-show competition at the annual fall National Scholastic Press Association's competition.

MSPA awarded Silver Chips the Marylander Award for the best high school paper in a school of 1,200 or more students, while Silver Chips Online took all of the individual awards offered to online papers.

The following is a list of Blair award winners at the Maryland convention:

Newspaper Individual Writing and Editing Contest

Comic
1st Place: Rebecca Sugar, The Strip (Silver Chips)
3rd Place: Lena Moreno, Fish 'n chips (Silver Chips)

Editorial Opinion
1st Place: Ashley Jurinka, When a failing grade can cut it (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Sheila Rajagopal, Lead: Still an Issue (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Sherri Geng, Here we go again (Silver Chips)
Betsy Costillo, Food for thought for MCPS (Silver Chips)

Features
1st Place: Jody Pollock, Dealing with a dangerous job (Silver Chips)
3rd Place: Kate Selby, Dive into dumpsters (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Brittany Moyer, Welcome to Sardine City (Silver Chips)
Ravi Umarji, Text-a-friend: the high-tech approach to cheating (Silver Chips)
Olivia Bevacqua, Asian Tsunami leaves Blazers anxious (Silver Chips)

In-depth Story
1st Place: Pria Anand, Staying True to Ideology and Identity (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Julyssa Lopez, Blazers opting out of parenthood (Silver Chips)
3rd Place (tie): Camille Mackler, Cutting away the pain (Silver Chips)
3rd Place (tie): Sally Lanar, Finding love on the World Wide Web (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Eric Glover, Sitting at the Shepherd's Table (Silver Chips)
Eric Glover, Generation 'n': outside races and the N-word (Silver Chips)
Olivia Bevacqua, Shrinking waistlines, expanding risks (Silver Chips)
Olivia Bevacqua, El Salvador; living within the walls of poverty (Silver Chips)
Karima Tawfik, Cyber-bullying: turning to high/tech harassment (Silver Chips)
Karima Tawfik, Dinning out with Blair's Mc Addicts (Silver Chips)
Katy Lafen, Student education lost in translation (Silver Chips)
Jody Pollock, Teenagers fight fires and save lives (Silver Chips)

Informational Graphic
1st Place: Camille Mackler, Sleep Stats (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Sheila Rajagopal, Drug dealers (Silver Chips)
3rd Place Camille Mackler, Slots (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Sheila Rajagopal, Exposing the iRritating side of iPods (Silver Chips)

News
Honorable Mention
Chelsea Zhang, Night School starts earlier (Silver Chips)
Ravi Umarji, Drive to Survive held at Blair (Silver Chips)

Double-page Layout
3rd Place: Kate Selby, Julia Penn, Arianna Herman and Sheila Rajagopal
Health Chips Presents: under the influence; an in-depth look at harmful habits (Silver Chips)

Front-page Layout
1st Place: Chelsea Zhang (Silver Chips)

Opinion/editorial-page layout
1st Place: Stephanie Nguyen and John Silberholz, Should Maryland legalize slot machines? (Silver Chips)

Photography
1st Place: Hannah Rosen, Bring it on (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Adam Schuyler, A different kind of boy (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Nat Lichten, Inauguration 2005 (Silver Chips)
Hannah Thresher, Staying true to ideology and identity (Silver Chips)
Adam Schuyler, Wootton serves Blair a loss (Silver Chips)

Profiles
1st Place: Olivia Bevacqua, A different kind of boy (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Brittany Moyer, The tougher road feels right (Silver Chips)

Honorable Mention:
Julyssa Lopez, Stabbing victim attempts to make a turnaround (Silver Chips)
Monica Huang, Reflecting on years in the "Red" Zone (Silver Chips)
Amanda Lee, Former secret agent blows her cover (Silver Chips)

Single (inside) page Layout
Honorable Mention:
Kate Selby, Julia Penn, Sheila Rajagopal and Arianna Herman, The secret lives of teachers (Silver Chips)

Signed Editorial Column
Honorable Mention:
Julia Penn, Exposing the iRritating side of iPods (Silver Chips)

Review
2nd Place: John Visclosky, Braving the barren wasteland of primetime TV (Silver Chips)

Sports-game Coverage
3rd Place: Lauren Finkel, Warriors conquer Blazers in first round (Silver Chips)

Sports-news or feature
1st Place: Kristina Yang, Athletes sobered by dose of reality (Silver Chips)
2nd Place: Emily-Kate Hannapel, Athletes benched but not beaten (Silver Chips)

Web Individual Writing and Editing Contest

Feature Writing
1st Place: Jody Pollock, Breaking and entering: the new way to party (Silver Chips Online)
2nd Place: June Hu, Blair's a-blaring (Silver Chips Online)
3rd Place: Amanda Lee, Parents look the other way on underage drinking (Silver Chips Online)

Front-page Design
Honorable Mention:
Eric Hysen, Daniel Aisen, Jeff Dunn, Silver Chips Online Alternate Front Page (Silver Chips Online)
Daniel Aisen, Jeff Dunn, Silver Chips Online Front Page (Silver Chips Online)

Inside-page Design
Honorable Mention:
Eric Hysen, Chips Online Fantasy Baseball (Silver Chips Online)
Eric Hysen, Picture Galleries Page (Silver Chips Online)

News Writing
1st Place: Varun Gulati, Series of thefts occur at Blair (Silver Chips Online)
2nd Place: Varun Gulati, Athletic teams' water remains untested for lead (Silver Chips Online)
3rd Place: Michael Bushnell, Blair's impact on Maryland's new teen driving laws (Silver Chips Online)

Review/opinion
1st Place: Jody Pollock, Where Brad Pitt meets George W. Bush (Silver Chips Online)
2nd Place: John Silberholz, Health room policies tax nurses and pose risks to students (Silver Chips Online)

Honorable Mention:
Jeremy Goodman, Donkeys need a makeover (Silver Chips Online)
Jeremy Goodman, Nu Metal may be dangerous to your health (Silver Chips Online)
Alex Gold, Terri Schiavo is not a legislative issue (Silver Chips Online)
Alex Mazerov, Presidential Medals of what?!? (Silver Chips Online)
Jonah Gold, Congressional hearings shed little light on MLB steroid scandal (Silver Chips Online)
Michael Bushnell, A Nation conquers the world (Silver Chips Online)
Jeremy Goodman, All-star jazz group shines (Silver Chips Online)
Armin Rosen, MCPS Budget blues: an opinion (Silver Chips Online)
Emma Zachurski, Compelling chronicles of Bob Dylan (Silver Chips Online)
Nora Boedecker, Million Dollar Baby packs a punch (Silver Chips Online)
Michael Bushnell, Temple should fire John Chaney (Silver Chips Online)
Kate Selby, Alfie: fall in love with Law (Silver Chips Online)

Sports Writing
1st Place: John Silberholz, Of birdies and wickets (Silver Chips Online)

2nd Place: Ellie Blalock, Blazers, Colonels leave game locked in dead heat (Silver Chips Online)

3rd Place: Alex Mazerov, Baseball and Washington: a winning combination (Silver Chips Online)

Magazine Individual Writing and Editing Contest

Computer-generated Illustration/Artwork
1st Place (tie): Yang Shan, Midnight Waves

Photography
2nd Place: Christopher Consolino, Lion (Silver Quill)

Honorable Mention:
Nathaniel Lichten, Turning around (Silver Chips: Survivor Montgomery Blair)
Christopher Consolino, Shifting surf (Silver Quill)

Cover Design
1st Place: Christopher Consolino/ Phyllis Xu, Silver Quill: Aperture (Silver Quill)
3rd Place: Arianna Herman/ Melanie Thompson, Survivor Cover (Silver Chips: Survivor Montgomery Blair)

Inside-page Design
3rd Place: Christopher Consolino, 12:47 A.M. (Silver Quill)