Young journalists earn honors at LIU Post
Budding young journalists from across Long Island were recently honored by LIU Post at its annual Best of High School Journalism awards ceremony on April 8, where the keynote speaker was none other than Anton Media Group’s own Angela Susan Anton.
Students spanning from Westhampton to Queens and everywhere in-between filled the Herbert and Delores Goldsmith Atrium at LIU Post’s Tilles Center for lunch and an awards presentation after receiving tours and interactive media experiences on campus. Each school represented winning entries in the journalism awards contest in categories ranging from best feature, sports story, online publication and more, all pulled from the pages of their own respective school newspapers. Award ceremony head Carolyn Levin, interim director of the LIU Post journalism program and faculty advisor for the school’s student newspaper, said that this contest is held annually to help support student journalism and that response to this year’s awards on the part of high schoolers island-wide has been overwhelming.
“We had the largest number of entries ever for this awards ceremony. I really didn’t know there would be this level of enthusiasm, and it really shows that journalism is still of interest to high school students,” she said. “The entries we received this year were extraordinary…incredible journalism is being done by these high schools.”
Levin—herself a former editor of Anton Media Group’s Port Washington News—was excited over this year’s keynote speaker, as she welcomed her old boss to address the ceremony’s attendees—Angela Susan Anton, publisher of Anton’s 17 local newspapers, along with Long Island Weekly, an arts and entertainment publication, and numerous magazines, special sections and websites. The group of community publications was founded by Anton’s husband, Karl, in 1984.
During her keynote speech, Anton spoke of the importance of cultivating the next generation of intrepid and dedicated journalists to the gathered students.
“I admire and appreciate what you are doing. Our world today is filled with a great deal of misinformation, rumors, gossip and hype. By working hard to report and publish accurate, factual and truthful information, you are truly making your high schools and the world a better place,” she said. “Truthful, well reported stories are essential to making sure that people are informed and that institutions are accountable. You are contributing in a big way to civic life.”
The Tarmac, the school newspaper of Chaminade High School in Mineola, took home two prizes that day—first place for Best Commentary/Editorial and third place for Best Online Publication.
“We’re really happy to have gotten these awards…this is the first year we’ve had the website, so to get any recognition for it already is a great honor,” said Peter Charalambous, the paper’s online editor-in-chief. “It’s really great to see all the hard work by the staff of The Tarmac get rewarded by this ceremony. We have a large staff that works long hours so that we can do quality work and disperse information throughout the entire Chaminade family.”
