See Some Of Our 2012 Contest Winners - Youth Journalism International

Many people know that Youth Journalism International holds a comprehensive contest each year to recognize the best in journalism by young people worldwide.

But what many don’t realize is that the contest is open to young people all over the globe whether they are involved with Youth Journalism International or not.

Our aim is to recognize the best youth journalism in the world that is published in English and while we believe our students’ work is among the best, there are others who deserve recognition,too.

This year, a YJI student, Pushkal Shivam, won the top prize, Student Journalist of the Year. He was the first YJI student to capture that award since the contest began three years ago.

This year, young people in 18 countries won awards. It is important to note that about two-thirds of them had no connection to YJI other than to enter the contest.

Nineteen judges gave their time to review the entries and make the difficult choices about which deserved to win.

We invited winners to send photographs after we sent out certificates and trophies. Some of them are pasted below. We will continue to publish as many as we can, so check back to see more.

Here’s the crystal trophy that belongs

to the 2012 Student Journalist of the Year,

Pushkal Shivam, of Mumbai, India.

This trophy will be on display at the

Investigative Reporters and Editors

national conference in Boston, Mass.,

in June. After that, it will be mailed

to India.

Nyno Ortiz of Hartford, Connecticut,

won an honorable mention in the

individual news writing category

for her story, “City Teens Say Illegal

Tats No Big Deal.” She wrote the piece,

which explored a potentially dangerous

trend in her community, as part of her

work at the Hartford Journalism & Media

Academy.

Maryland journalism teacher Mark Ionescu
of The John Carroll School in Bel Air
won the coveted 2012 Journalism Educator
of the Year after his students flooded
the contest singing his praises. His crystal
trophy is pictured above, and below is a photo
of Ionescu celebrating with the staff of
The Patriot, the school newspaper.
“Mr. I,” as his students call him, is
in the lower right part of the photo
in the blue shirt.

Photo courtesy of Grace Kim

Narine Daneghyan of Yerevan, Armenia, won first

place in the Sports Features category for a comprehensive

report she did for Youth Journalism International,

“Pan-Armenian Games Unite Through Sports.”

To see a full list of 2012 contest winners, links to some of the winning entries and comments from the judges, look here.

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