The Boiling Point has won four awards, including its first-ever prize for page design, in two of the country’s most prestigious and competitive national journalism contests.
In the Story of the Year competition of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), the Boiling Point won two Honorable Mentions, a first-ever in Features and its second in Multi-media coverage. With just 10 honors in each of six categories, Story of the Year awards are probably the most coveted journalism prizes. They were announced Sept. 7.
In the Gold Circle Awards of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, announced Oct. 10, the paper won 3rd Place for News Page Design. It also won a Certificate of Merit in News Writing for a story by Zev Hurwitz about the protest tent in Jerusalem for Gilad Shalit.
This is the third time in five years that the Boiling Point has placed in the NSPA contest, and its first national award for layout.
Nate Erez, who now attends Hamilton High School, won an NSPA Honorable Mention in the Feature category for his story “Snooze or Lose: The Problem with Being Sleepy,” which he wrote as a sophomore at Shalhevet last spring. The article was about the sleep Shalhevet students get per night, how much sleep they really need, and the ramifications of teens’ sleep deprivation. It was part of a larger special section called “Tired and Texting.”
The second NSPA Honorable Mention came in the Multimedia Category, for stories, slideshows and a video about student demonstrations reacting to the non-renewal of Rabbi Richler’s contract last spring. Seniors David Fletcher, Adam Ashkenazi, Ari Feuer and Ashley Mashian, and junior Emilie Benyowitz shared the award.
Their coverage included a video report on the sit-ins, interviews with students and administration, and live updates on the paper’s website.
Only five awards per category are awarded in the CSPA Gold Circle awards, but there are many more categories than in the NSPA contest.
Rachel Lester won her CSPA Gold Circle Third Prize for News Page Design for page in the December 2010 paper, where she used cutouts of different students, speech-bubbles showing their opinion, and a Q-and-A column with Daniel Schwartz, all related to a debate over the school schedule.
Zev Hurwitz, last year’s Editor in Chief, was awarded a Gold Circle Certificate of Merit in news writing for a story about the then-imprisoned kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He personally interviewed Shalit’s father Noam at the family’s protest tent.
“I’m really proud to have presided over a very award-winning year for the paper,” said Zev, who now attends UC San Diego. “The awards really show the efforts of the whole staff and are something everyone should be proud of.“
The paper as a whole also won an International First Place rating from the Quill and Scroll Honorary Journalism Society and a designation of First Class from the NSPA, both for the entire 2010-11 school year.
Past Boiling Point successes in the Story of the Year category have been in the Diversity and Multimedia categories.
Last year, Yonah Nimmer, Adam Ashkenazi, Zev Hurwitz, Jaclyn Kellner and Lexi Gelb won First Prize for coverage of a sudden change in school administration.
Elana Eden, Penina Smith, and Micah Gottleib recieved an Honorable Mention in 2008 for their story on former principal Mr. Tranchi’s experience with racism in israel.
