Editors from Montgomery Blair High School's newspaper, Silver Chips, won twelve awards between the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 20th annual Gold Circle Awards and the Quill and Scroll competition from the International Honorary Society for High School Journalists. Three Silver Chips editors won nine Gold Circle Awards, the most for any high school paper in Maryland. Five editors won five awards from the Quill and Scroll, the only Maryland students to win any of these awards.
From the Gold Circle Awards, senior Eric Shansby won a total of six awards. He placed first in art/illustration portfolio, editorial cartoons, sports cartoons, and comic cartoons. He also won second place for his cartoon portfolio and third place for editorial cartoons. He also received a certificate of merit for black and white with one color art/illustrations. According to Silver Chips sponsor, John Mathwin, who has watched the Gold Circle Awards for 25 years, Shansby's achievement is "unprecedented." In the Quill and Scroll competition, Shansby was declared a National Winner in Editorial Cartoon category for his piece, "Abstinence Education."
Silver Chips editors won four Quill and Scroll awards in addition to the editorial cartoon award won by Shansby. Editor-in-chief Stephen Wertheim won for his news story "BOE expenses questioned." Editor Anna Benfield won for her feature story "Rwandan Genocide Through…." Editor Rachel Yood won for her editorial "GT program excludes," and editor Kristen Hoven won for her news story "Sniper was in Blair's Backyard."
In the Gold Circle Awards, senior Kang-Xing Jin won second place in the category of news features for his story "A Decade Later, Gangs Resurface," and Senior Iris Flores won third place in feature-page design for laying ou "Keepin' Up With the Kicks."
Silver Chips and Winston Churchill High School's The Churchill Observer were the only high schools from Maryland to receive any of the Scholastic Gold Circle awards. The Churchill Observer won four awards: first place in news features and a certificate of merit in general feature and two certificates of merit in sports photographs.
The 20th annual Gold Circle Awards competition honors individual achievement by student writers, editors, designers and photographers. This year the competition attracted 10,642 individual and staff entries from high schools and middle schools across the country.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors/Quill and Scroll 2003 International Writing, Photo Contest winners are eligibly to apply for one of the $500 Edward J. Nell Memorial Scholarships in Journalism.
The list of winners was distributed at the 79th Annual Scholastic Convention for junior and senior high schools on March 19-21 in New York City.
Annie Peirce. Annie Peirce is a senior in the Communications Arts Program and the public relations manager for Silver Chips. She is also an opinions editor for Silver Chips Online. She was born on October 25, 1984, in a hospital somewhere in Prince George's County; but doesn't … More »
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