MDDC Press Foundation's
Michael S. Powell High School Journalist of the Year

Applications for the award are mailed to area high schools in the fall and are due in mid January. Applicants are asked to submit five samples of work, mounted on unlined paper, a letter of recommendation from the nominee’s advisor, an autobiography geared to the publication activities in which the nominee participated, and the nominee should write a paragraph or two on the most important aspect of scholastic journalism.

Applications are available for download in the fall.

Past Winners of the High School Journalist of the Year

• Audrey Kubetin, Montgomery Blair High School, 2007
• Jody Pollack, Montgomery Blair High School, 2006
• Dan Rasmussen, St. Alban's School, 2005
• Joel Kliksberg, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, 2002-2003
• Julia Kay, Montgomery Blair High School, 2001-2002
• Melissa Robbins, Walt Whitman High School, 2000-2001
• Yoni Brook, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, 1999-2000
• Matthew Smith, Montgomery Blair High School, 1998-1999

For the second consecutive year, a Montgomery Blair High School student is named the Michael S. Powell High School Journalist of the Year award. Audrey Kubetin of Takoma Park, MD, was chosen unanimously by the selection committee.

Montgomery Blair's student newspaper, Silver Chips, utilizes a highly selective interview and application process for selecting its writing staff, but Kubetin already had the newspaper advisor's attention when she was in the prerequisite journalism class.

"I couldn't wait for Audrey to be on the staff," says advisor Maureen Freeman. "Her writing was a dream. She was clearly a student who 'got' it."

Kubetin started on the school newspaper in her junior year and in less than two years, has distinguished herself as a serious journalist. Advisor Freeman credits Kubetin with writing some of the best pieces of journalism the school paper has produced in recent years and her feature work also won a first-place award from the Maryland Scholastic Press Association. "It was not a surprise," Freeman added, "when Audrey was selected to the important position of features editor."

As features editor, Kubetin says she feels it is her responsibility to guide her fellow staff members through the feature writing process, a process which helps her own writing become stronger with every story.

Kubetin's features have covered students dealing with serious problems such as psychiatric disorders and illiteracy. She also wrote a feature about students at the school who came to the country illegally. Advisor Freeman said Kubetin tackled these weighty topics with great professionalism and maturity. She calls Kubetin a very versatile writer, saying, "she can also take the less weighty subjects and turn them into good reads that rise well above a typical high school newspaper story."

"The most important aspect of scholastic journalism," Kubetin wrote in her application, "is by far the chance it provides to educate other students. Each one of my stories seeks to leave readers more knowledgeable about compelling issues that affect their lives."

Of her plans to pursue a career in journalism, Kubetin wrote that she plans to get a graduate degree in journalism, and to earn a bachelor's degree in history. "If journalism is the first draft of history," she explained, "a reporter must know the past 10,000 pages of the work to which she is adding."

Jody Pollack - 2006 High School Journalist of the Year

Jody, who is the third Montgomery Blair student to win the award in the last six years, began writing for the school’s newspaper, Silver Chips, in her junior year. Paul Milton, executive editor of the Patuxent Publishing Co. and chairman of the MDDC Editorial Committee which judged the competition, said, “The selection committee was very impressed with the serious topics of (Jody’s) articles. Her work challenged readers to pay attention to the world around them.” He added, “Jody’s writing is crisp, detailed and descriptive. You can feel the passion she has for her work in the way she goes about her job as a high school journalist. We think she has a good future in this profession.”

 Jody’s work has earned her other accolades. She received first place awards in the features, online features and online editorials categories of the 2005 Maryland Scholastic Press Association journalism contest; and was a Sweepstakes Winner in the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ 2005 Quill and Scroll International Writing and Photo Contest. But, says Jody, “the real reward” has been developing and polishing her journalistic conviction.

Silver Chips Advisor Maureen Freeman said, “(Reading) Jody’s work…has always been a pleasure.” The school newspaper uses a rigorous and competitive application process to select students to join its staff. According to Freeman, Jody’s work in a pre-requisite journalism course and a communications skills class made her an easy candidate to choose.

Freeman added, “Her story ideas are always interesting. …She handles them with great maturity and insight, with solid reporting and careful interviewing of her sources. …I find myself simply reading her story as I would in any top-rated newspaper.”

Dan Rasmussen, a former figure skater and current senior at St. Albans School in Washington, DC, was the 2005 recipient of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Foundation’s High School Journalist of the Year award. Rasmussen began at the St. Albans News in his freshman year. In four years, he amassed an impressive record of accomplishments.

Rasmussen was named deputy editor-in-chief at the end of his sophomore year and at a time when the school newspaper was floundering. It had only four staff-writers and published only six issues that year, averaging about eight pages each. But by the end of his junior year, Rasmussen’s enthusiasm and dedication revived the St. Albans News. The newspaper then boasted a staff of thirty-five writers, three cartoonists and a photographer and published 11 issues, totaling over 120 pages of content.

Rasmussen also updated the newspaper’s design, implemented a beat system for covering the different aspects of school life, and turned the newspaper into a respected voice that has affected change at the school.

Jacqueline Grazette, the journalism advisor at St. Albans, says Rasmussen “has taken very seriously the responsibility of a journalist to monitor power, and as a result…has been a real voice for student and faculty concerns,” and that he has done this “sometimes, at tremendous risk to himself.”

Rasmussen also had experience working for a community newspaper. At The Georgetown Current in Washington, DC, he parlayed an unpaid summer position into an invitation to be the paper’s first-ever high school intern to be offered a position as a paid correspondent.

Rasmussen credited his experiences at St. Albans with teaching him that “journalism, when done fairly and accurately, can have a tremendous positive impact.”

Paul Milton, an executive editor at Patuxent Publishing and chairman of the MDDC Editorial Committee, said, "The selection committee was very impressed with Dan's dedication and determination to be the best journalist he can be. Even as a high school journalist, Dan has already taken on meaty topics that you don't typically find in some college newspapers, let alone high school ones. He's well on his way to a great career in journalism."

Joel Kliksberg, a senior at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville and editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Lion’s Tale, was selected to receive the High School Journalist of the Year Award from the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Foundation for 2002-2003.

Kliksberg already had established himself as an outstanding young journalist through his work at the school newspaper, in addition to serving as a staff writer and photographer for El Tiempo Latino of Washington, DC, as a freelance photographer for area newspapers and as an intern at Gazette Newspapers.

“Our winner impressed the judges with his investigative skill, his devotion to the craft, his interest in topics relevant to his school and community, and his developing versatility,” said then-Journalism Education Committee Chair Jean Thompson, who was also The Sun’s associate editorial page editor. “He is mastering news writing and reporting in two languages and he is developing a critical eye as a news photographer.”

Kliksberg began working on The Lion’s Tale as a photographer in ninth grade and moved on to serve as a writer, photo editor and managing editor, before being named editor-in-chief. During his tenure, the newspaper investigated thefts at the school, exposed unethical practices at an SAT tutoring service, and wrote editorials critical of decisions made by the school administration resulting in changes by the administration.

“Although Joel and I did not always agree on issues, my job was easier knowing I had an editor-in-chief whom I could trust completely for his clear judgment, honesty and compassion,” said Susan Zuckerman, journalism advisor at Charles E. Smith.

Thompson also cited Kliksberg’s enthusiasm and professionalism in reporting stories like the expose' of an SAT tutoring company and an editorial calling for the school to reinstate a class on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“Above all, it appears from the subjects and causes that he chooses to cover, such as the plight of Latino immigrants, that Joel understands the role of the journalist as a champion for making the world a better place,” said Thompson.

Kliksberg’s freelance photographs have been published by the Associated Press, El Tiempo Latino, Gazette Newspapers, USA Today, The Washington Times and Washington Jewish Week. Starting in 2001, he worked as a staff writer and photographer for El Tiempo Latino using his Spanish language skills to cover a variety of topics, including the closing of DC General Hospital.

Julia Kay, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School, was presented with the 2001-2002 High School Journalist of the Year award  from the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Foundation .

Kay, managing news editor  of the school newspaper, Silver Chips, was chosen from a record number of highly qualified high school journalists from the MDDC area who participated in the most competitive contest to date.

Jean Thompson of The Baltimore Sun, chair of the MDDC Journalism Education Committee that made the selection in 2001, noted: “While we reviewed many fine candidates, we were most impressed with [Julia’s] willingness to tackle difficult topics and to dig, dig and dig some more for the truth.”

Kay started her journalism career in the fifth grade when she was selected to review software programs for The Washington Post’s monthly magazine Fast Forward. In high school, she has served on the Silver Chips staff as sports beat reporter and page editor before being named managing news editor this year. She has tackled tough stories including low math test scores in Montgomery County, guns in her school, and allegations by her school’s principal of racism in the county’s school system.

Melissa Robbins, a senior at Walt Whitman High School, was named the 2000-2001 High School Journalist of the Year by the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Foundation.

Robbins, managing editor of the school newspaper, the Black & White, was chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants that attend high schools in Maryland, Delaware and the District. “She rose to the top of a strong field of applicants by demonstrating a rare degree of reporting and writing abilities,” said then-MDDC Journalism Education Committee Chair Tom Linthicum, who headed the panel of judges that selected Robbins.

Before becoming managing editor of the Black & White this year, Robbins served as in-depth editor and reporter since joining the staff in 1998. Her stories for the newspaper have covered such subjects as teenage suicide, sexual harassment, and the effects of school violence.

Yoni Brook, a senior at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Lion’s Tale, was presented the High School Journalist of the Year Award by the Maryland Delaware DC Press Foundation.

“More than just excellent writing, editing and photography skills,” Brook demonstrated “enterprise and enthusiasm and a dedication that could serve as a model for professional journalists,” said the Frederick News-Post's former Managing Editor Michael Powell, who headed the panel of judges that selected Brook from what the judges said was an exceptional field of candidates.

“His efforts to get stories and his efforts to write on deadline opened our eyes to the excitement that young journalists like Mr. Brook bring to our profession,” said Powell.

In addition to covering stories like the resignation of the school headmaster and school security issues, Brook managed to get press credentials for the NATO 50^th Anniversary Summit, making The Lion’s Tale the only high school newspaper to report from inside the summit. Brook served as a reporter, photographer and photo editor before becoming editor-in-chief.

Matthew Smith, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School and co-editor-in-chief of its school newspaper, Silver Chips, was selected to be the 1998-1999 High School Journalist of the Year by the MDDC Press Association.

Smith, of Silver Spring, was selected from the largest pool of applicants in recent memory.  The contest was expanded in 1998 to include all the high schools with journalism programs in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia; in previous years it was limited to Maryland schools.

“The MDDC judges were very impressed with the talents shown by Matthew Smith,” said the Association’s then-Scholarship Committee chairman, Tom Graham. “His work for his high school paper combined detailed reporting, strong story-telling and effective writing on important topics. He also used his position as editor to take articulate stances on First Amendment issues relevant to all scholastic journalists.”

“We’re pleased that MDDC’s newly upgraded award will go this year to such an outstanding candidate,” said Graham, executive editor of Patuxent Publishing Company at the time.

Smith had been active in journalism since his sophomore year at Blair, serving as a staff photographer, writer and editor for Silver Chips before ascending to the co-editor-in-chief  position.