Student journalists win state awards

Glacier High School’s student newspaper has something to howl about.

Two student journalists — senior Jennifer Burnham and junior Elly Betterley —  wrote articles for The Howl, Glacier’s student newspaper, that earned them second-place awards through the Montana Journalism Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

Burnham received second place in the Enterprise Reporting category for her article on Ronda Stevens, homeless liaison for Kalispell and Evergreen schools.

Judge’s commented that “Burnham’s story does a good job of shedding light on student homelessness. Stevens is an excellent source.”

Betterley won second place in the News Writing category for her article on hall monitor Diana Brown’s untimely death.

Judges noted: “Elly’s story on how students were responding to the death of a beloved hall monitor and school employee covered an obviously emotional story with skill. Her writing and interviews captured the feelings toward Diana Brown without getting lost in too much emotion.”

Senior Carsyn DeReu, The Howl editor-in-chief,  said few students or staff understand everything that goes into making the newspaper other than a spotlight section, which includes short student interviews.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that two of our staff get credit in a big competition,” DeReu said. “Only the journalists who do the stories understand how stressful it is to be a reporter on deadline. Jenn and Elly worked hard and deserve to be recognized.”

Ted Burnham, adviser and journalism teacher, said students are striving to write more in-depth stories throughout this school year. This year’s goal was to improve with every issue, he said.

“We have students who are really into their work,” Burnham said. “You have to be brave and resourceful to interview a variety of sources for a story. Students are also very willing to revise each other’s work and help each other do better. We had some great team efforts this year.”

“Journalism is a small program and gets very little recognition compared to sports, music or theater,” Burnham said. “Students put their work out there for the world to view and critique. Some students have found a niche here in journalism, or yearbook, at GHS. To get a little recognition from someone outside the school is great.”