The week before Thanksgiving break a small group of journalists went to Washington D.C. for the National High School Journalism Convention. While there, writers Maya Dawson (‘23) and Graciela Fischer (‘22) both won awards for their writing in competition.

     “I did commentary writing. So, we were given four articles of raw data and the topic for this year, it was about college student loan debt. So, we were given the articles, and then we had to write something about our take on solutions to college loan debt” Dawson said.

     Both writers tackled different types of stories, while Dawson was writing a commentary, Fischer was busy writing a sports story.

     “They basically gave us a piece of paper with an athlete’s background and how he’s done in triathlons. Then he spoke to us for 30 minutes about triathlons, so I was hoping to get more of a features sports story,” Fischer said.

     While both entered competition, neither were sure about the quality of their work, it paid off as Dawson received an Excellent and Fischer received an honorable mention. This is the first time in Conifer history that 75% of all participants in competition received awards, including Carson Kennedy (‘21) who won an honorable mention in Literary Magazine: Photography.