Michael S. Powell High School Journalist of the Year

2010 - Kate Froehlich

    The winner of the Michael S. Powell High School Journalist Award for
    2010 is John Carroll high school senior Kate Froehlich of Fallston,
    MD. Froehlich, the first winner from John Carroll, will be honored
    at the Editorial Awards portion of the Annual Awards Conference,
    scheduled for April 22-23.

    Froehlich has been a school journalist since the sixth grade when
    she wrote for her middle school newspaper. She wrote news and
    sports stories for two years, assumed the role of news editor in
    the 8th grade and worked for a time as editor in chief. In high
    school, Froehlich took journalism electives prior to joining the staff
    of the high school's paper, The Patriot, in her junior year.

Having followed her work in the journalism classes, Patriot faculty-advisor Mark Ionescu started Froehlich at the copy editor position. She so impressed him in that role that he made her executive editor before the end of that school year. "(Her) work...was revelatory," he said. "She astonished me...with her efficiency and accuracy. ...I was certain that she was ready for more responsibility on the newspaper."

Just as Froehlich was taking over the executive editor position, the newspaper was embarking on an ambitious transition. The staff of 30 mostly first-time journalists was revising, restyling and publishing a full color newspaper while attempting to learn, launch and promote a new companion Web site. "Kate would impress me and far exceed my expectations," Ionescu said. Besides her assigned responsibilities of supervising stories and the copy editing team, Froehlich did whatever else needed to be done. "When news broke and someone needed to write a last-minute story, Kate did it. When all the photographers were MIA before a speaker's visit to the school, Kate grabbed a camera. When writers and editors missed deadlines, Kate pulled them aside and dealt with the situations."

Ionescu then put Froehlich in charge of the entire online operation. With her efforts focused on that one area, Froehlich's leadership was "masterful," said Ionescu. She established an organizational system for the online paper. She set up post and due date calendars and established accountability standards. She created weekly deadlines for assigning and posting stories, fine-tuned the job descriptions for online and managing editors, started a beat system for reporters, and implemented the practice of creating daily agendas that addressed immediate concerns and set priorities for the staff. After only four months, the online paper had an operating structure established and was updating daily. Froehlich's next goals for the site include incorporating multimedia features.

Froehlich is widely regarded as the hardest working student on the newspaper's staff. Ionescu says she "produces more (and higher quality) stories than any student on the staff," and has regularly garnered praise from school faculty for her skills and professionalism.

Forehlich has taken heat from some in the school who think The Patriot's staff takes itself too seriously. They've argued that the paper should be a vehicle for the school to promote itself and should steer clear of portraying it in a negative light. But Froehlich says she has a responsibility. "I am not the school's cheerleader, nor do I hope to tear it down, but I want to answer questions that students raise," she says. The paper "gives students the ability to exercise their First Amendment rights for a positive cause and allows them to understand decisions made...that will affect them in the future."

In college, Froehlich hopes to minor in journalism and she says she would love "nothing more" than to be a reporter on Capitol Hill.

The Michael S. Powell High School Journalist of the Year award honors an outstanding senior staff member of a Maryland, Delaware or D.C.-area high school newspaper. The honor includes a $1,500 cash scholarship. The application season opens each Fall and closes by the end of the following January.

Back to High School Journalist Main Page