Oct. 27, 2021

National Scholastic Press Association announces the finalists in its 2021 COVID-19 Reporting competition.

Winners in this and all Individual Award categories, as well as the NSPA Pacemaker Awards in Broadcast, Newspaper/Newsmagazine and Specialty Magazine, will be announced virtually at 4 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021.

Finalists are alphabetical by state.

Register for the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention, presented virtually Nov. 1, 2021, to Jan. 15, 2022.

Enter the Best of Show competition for the fall virtual convention.

Register for the Philadelphia Storytelling Workshop.

NSPA’s first in-person Pacemaker Master Class will be presented Nov. 11-13, 2021, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

“Keeping the Arts Alive”
Jackson McAfee
Lakeside TV
Lakeside High School
Hot Springs, Arkansas

“Pet adoption during quarantine”
Jason Goldie
InFocus
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto, California

“Online Learning”
Lincoln Roch, Macey Austin
KYOT
Monarch High School
Louisville, Colorado

“The Covid Kids”
Caroline Kady
The North Star
Naperville North High School
Naperville, Illinois

“Students Adopt Pets in Quarantine”
Cassie Sun
MHSNews
Marquette High School
Chesterfield, Missouri

“Teaching Through Live History:
A roundtable discussion with MFS history teachers”
Rebecca Benjamin
MFS WordsWorth
Moorestown Friends School
Moorestown, New Jersey

“COVID 19 and Grades”
Carrena Spann, Deim Gannaban
RNE-TV
Richland Northeast High School
Columbia, South Carolina

“A COVID-19 year in the life at Mac”
Alice Scott, Kate Boyle, Anna McClellan, Grace Nugent
The Shield Online
McCallum High School
Austin, Texas

“Views on Vaccines”
Eema Willis, Ava Caballero-Romo
Hawk TV
Hebron High School
Carrollton, Texas

“McLean High School students return to in-person learning”
Marina Qu
WMHS News
McLean High School
McLean, Virginia

“Student exhausted by Zoom, family responsibilities”
Lynda Sambrano
Tribe Tribune
Fullerton Union High School
Fullerton, California

“Silver lining: special education adapts to virtual learning”
Dana Richie, Elena Hubert, Anna Fedorova
The Southerner
Midtown High School
Atlanta, Georgia

“Parents protest in-person delays despite updates from administration”
Nicky Edwards-Levin
U-High Midway
University of Chicago Laboratory High School
Chicago, Illinois

“The Reality of Cheating in Virtual Classes”
Anika Raina
Drops of Ink
Libertyville High School
Libertyville, Illinois

“On call: students, siblings and learning online”
Kailey Gee
West Side Story
Iowa City West High School
Iowa City, Iowa

“New Way of Nursing”
Campbell Wood
The Harbinger
Shawnee Mission East High School
Prairie Village, Kansas

“A Return to Normal”
Mia Hilkowitz
Spark
Lakota East High School
Liberty Township, Ohio

“Working Students Reflect on Their Roles Keeping Communities Running Through the Pandemic”
Mary Loeb
The La Salle Falconer
La Salle Catholic College Preparatory
Milwaukie, Oregon

“Officials Quarantine Students After First COIVD-19 Case”
Jordyn Folsom, McKenzie Canton
The Rider Online
Legacy High School
Mansfield, Texas

“FCPS plans to bring all students back by Jan. 26”
Maya Amman, Marina Qu
The Highlander
McLean High School
McLean, Virginia

“The mental health pandemic:
Reopening and high school campuses amidst a rise in COVID-19”
Catherine Chu, Haley Pflasterer
The Oracle
Gunn High School
Palo Alto, California

“On the frontlines of food”
Carolyn Jewett, Kate Muldoon, Evie Cuffaro
The Mix
Monarch High School
Louisville, Colorado

“Chicago’s Latinx communities face unique challenges combating pandemic”
Ella Beiser
U-High Midway
University of Chicago Laboratory High School
Chicago, Illinois

“One Year of Covid19: Where are we now?”
Emme Perencevich
The Little Hawk
Iowa City High School
Iowa City, Iowa

“The Mental Mixup”
Emily Moser, Erin Reece, Mitri Krishna
The Express
Blue Valley Northwest High School
Overland Park, Kansas

“The Covid-19 Gap”
Sim Khanuja
The Kirkwood Call
Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood, Missouri

“Safety In Numbers”
Natalie Mazey
Spark
Lakota East High School
Liberty Township, Ohio

“Life as a teenage essential worker”
Lucy Marco
The Shield
McCallum High School
Austin, Texas

“Behind the Mask”
Gillian Knowles, Nistha Neupane
The Edge
Pleasant Grove High School
Texarkana, Texas

“Going the extra 6 feet”
Julia Franco
Featherduster
Westlake High School
Austin, Texas

“COVID-19 Diagnosis”
Cerasela Hanseter, Alanna Jimenez
El Corazón
El Camino Real Charter High School
Woodland Hills, California

“This is how we live now”
Jespyn Bishop, Madison Ruser, Zoey Stanley, Jenaya Ripko, Tiffany Quarles
Reflections
Brighton High School
Brighton, Colorado

“Infectious Effects”
Jordie Block, Allison Gomez
Etruscan
Glenbrook South High School
Glenview, Illinois

“Masked Up”
Hannah Ford, Mary Breau, Ella Hutnik
Horizon
Blue Valley Northwest High School
Overland Park, Kansas

“COVID-19”
Lauren Harrell
Indian
Shawnee Mission North High School
Overland Park, Kansas

“Vax Fax”
Natalie Walsh, Anna Baranowski
Odyssey
Francis Howell Central High School
Cottleville, Missouri

“Calling the Shots”
Grace Manion
Pioneer
Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood, Missouri

“Put to the Test”
Alex Behn, Lillian Farrand, Carolyn Heckle, Sylvia Maxwell, Aiden Roth
Tesserae
Corning-Painted Post High School
Corning, New York

“If COVID Only Knew”
Cara Hudson
Kodiak
Bridgeland High School
Cypress, Texas

“In the Digital Classroom”
Isabel Chen, Rachael Kim, Marian Qian
Techniques
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Alexandria, Virginia