MacJ takes third place in Fall Fiesta sweepstakes

All three platforms earn TAJE Best of Show honors; newspaper, yearbook staffs capture 14 individual awards at annual state journalism convention in San Antonio

Dave Winter

Moments after the Fall Fiesta awards ceremony concluded, Shield co-editors in chief Alice Scott and Evie Barnard proudly display MacJ’s three Best of Show awards and its third place overall sweepstakes award.

Shield staff reports
October 22, 2022

SAN ANTONIO—MacJournalism fared well in the individual and staff award ceremony on Oct. 10 that brought a close to Fall Fiesta, the 2022 annual convention of the Texas Association of Journalism Educators at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk.

The staff captured 14 individual awards (six superior, five excellent and three honorable mention). Shield co-editor in chief Alice Scott won three superior awards (feature writing, video news story, video feature story), co-editor in chief Evie Barnard won a superior in news photography and co-editorial section editor Amaya Collier and first-year reporter Chloe Lewcock both earned superior awards in portrait photography.

The staff captured three Best of Show awards. The Shield Online earned second place among all Texas schools in the online newspaper category. The Shield earned first place and the Knight earned honorable mention Best in Show among schools classified 5A and below.

The total awards haul enabled MacJournalism to win third place in the overall sweepstakes competition even though only four student journalists attended the conference.

Our complete list of winners and our winning entries are listed below.

Sweepstakes

Third Place

MacJournalism

Best of Show Awards

Online Newspapers

Second Place, Overall

The Shield Online

Print Newspapers

First Place 5A and under

The Shield

Yearbooks

Honorable Mention, 5A and under

The Knight

Individual Awards

Superior

Feature Story

Alice Scott

News Photo

Evie Barnard

After marching around the perimeter of the school, students at yesterday’s walkout regrouped by the baseball fields to share their stories of assault. Genevieve Henley was one of the students who decided to share. “It was my first time really sharing my story with anyone but close friends,” Henley said, “It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.” Afterwards, her friend Bri Wilson comforted her. “I was just really emotional,” Henley said. Caption and photo by Evie Barnard.

Portrait

Amaya Collier

Freshman Aubrey Mitchell, an organizer for the walkout, brought together people from all over McCallum in order to speak out against sexual assault and to give them an opportunity to share their story. Prior to this picture being taken, Aubrey and her friend Grace smeared their hands with paint and scattered Aubrey’s torso with handprints, an ode to sexual assault survivors as well as the addition of the word “consent” painted across her stomach. With the body painting, Aubrey attempted to make herself a visual representation of the reason every student walked out of class that day: to emphasize just how serious the issue of sexual assault is, and to protest the ways they feel McCallum has failed victims. “I felt heard, myself, and every story that was shared gave me a new perspective,” Mitchell said. “This whole event gave people a new voice of confidence and that was the goal.” Photo by Amaya Collier.

Potrait

Chloe Lewcock

FOCUSED: A lot of my moms work consists of her working from home… and that means meetings. While some are on the phone, and some are on zoom, they still exhibit optimum focus. As I watch her on this one I can see how she is really paying attention to whatever is going on, and I know once shes done, the light will go off, and we can hopefully hangout. Photo by Chloe Lewcock.

Video News Story

Alice Scott

Video Feature Story

Alice Scott, Samantha Powers and Caroline Owen

Excellent

Information Graphic

Sophie Leung-Lieu

First-Year Photo

Margot Evelyn

My mom and our dogs, Lena and Clayton have always piled into the king sized bed every night when its time to go to sleep. Every morning my mom tries to read her favorite book about improv, because it helps her get inspired for her long day of work. However reading in the mornings when the dogs want to play and run around is always part of my moms morning struggle. Even though its sometimes hard for my mom to stay on task when the dogs are just waking up, seeing how happy and joyful they are every morning brings my mom so much happiness during the start of her day. Photo by Margot Evelyn.

News Photo

Amaya Collier

Seventeen-year-old Genevieve Henley [center] embraces junior Bri Wilson [left] after sharing their stories at yesterday’s walk out against sexual assault. Freshman Aubrey Mitchell [right], an organizer of the walk out, shows her support for Henley and Wilson in sharing their experiences. According to Henley, yesterday’s walkout was a demonstration of Mac students’ support for victims of sexual assault while validating and empowering survivors. “It was really freeing to stand in front of all those people and for them to hear me, especially after I was made to feel like my experience didn’t matter,” Henley said. Wilson agrees that the support from the crowd was empowering. “I was overwhelmed by all the love and support I felt when I shared my own stories and when people shared theirs,” Wilson said. “This whole experience was incredibly healing for me and I know it was for countless other people.” Photo by Amaya Collier.
Podcast/Interview

Theo Roe, Evelyn Griffin and Julian Magee

Podcast/Interview

Theo Roe and Samantha Powers

Honorable mention

Feature Photo

Charlie Partheymuller

Dancing a routine to “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” by ABBA, the Blue Brigade officers perform one of their final shows together. Front stage in the routine were captain Charli Cevallos and captain elect, Sophia Kramer, who choreographed and led numerous dances throughout the night. “It was easily one of the hardest dances I’ve ever performed stamina wise,” Kramer said. “But due to the difficulty it felt very rewarding once we were finished dancing.” Photo by Charlie Partheymuller.

Feature Photo

Sophie Kessler

Seniors Natalie Nagy, John Hamlet, Scarlet Frese, sophomore Stella Hufford, junior Stephanie Gallegos, freshman Sadie Swinney and junior Claire De Silva-Yost smile post-show for a group photo at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Photo by Sophie Kessler.

Sports Action Photo

Jolie Gabriel

Middle hitters Greta Carlson and Rylee Hissey leap in tandem to block a Northeast Raider spike attempt during varsity volleyball team’s sweep of the Northeast Raiders on Tuesday. In the district opener for both teams, the Knights cruised in the first set, 25-11. Freshman Lexi Rosenblatt said Tuesday’s game allowed the team to work on specific issues within a game setting. “It was a good chance to run plays,” Rosenblatt said. “We needed to work on communicating more and talking on the court.” The varsity put together its most dominant set in the second, winning by 16 points, 25-9. The Knights lost their early momentum in the final set, still winning, but the Raiders competed much more evenly before the Knights ultimately prevailed, 25-18, to complete the sweep. “We just fell out of it during that last set,” Rosenblatt said. “We got lazy because we knew we would win even if we didn’t try that hard. We stopped communicating.” The varsity plays LBJ this Friday at LBJ at 7:30 p.m. It’s the first varsity game between the two traditional rivals since BJ rejoined the UIL district for 5A @austinisd schools this school year. Photo by Jolie Gabriel.

Video Feature Story

Alice Scott

Teacher awards

Trailblazer Award

Dave Winter (nominated by Alice and Kristen Scott)

Social media managing editor Naomi Di-Capua, editor-in-chief Alice Scott, adviser Dave Winter, editor-in-chief Evie Barnard and design and visuals editor Sophie Leung-Lieu pose for a group photo with Winter’s TAJE Trailblazer Award at the end of the second day of the convention. (Lisa Roskens)