The Foothill Dragon Press has once again been recognized by the National Scholastic Press Association, which on January 11 awarded the news site the title of All-American, one of the most prestigious high school journalism designations in the country.
Vincent F. Filak, a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin, judged the site and awarded it with five out of five possible marks of distinction.
Student publications that pay a fee for the association’s web site critique service are given extensive written comments and given a rating in one of four categories, from Third Class to All-American.
“This was just an amazingly well-conceived and well-executed website,” Filak said in his comments. “From top to bottom, you do a great job with design, storytelling, visuals and navigation.”
NSPA judges rank each participating website in five categories: Coverage & Content, Interactivity & Community, Breaking News, Design & Navigation and Rich Media, which are all aspects that the Dragon Press staff has worked hard to improve on this year. Filak awarded the Foothill publication 3,949 points out of a possible 4,300.
“This was a really well done site that showed a strong interest in community,” Filak wrote. “You’ve got more social media “sharing” tools at the end of your stories than I even knew existed.”
Filak also singled out December’s coverage of Every 15 Minutes as one of the best pieces on the site.
“My favorite thing…was the ‘Every 15 Minutes’ event and the approach you took to live blogging it. It was experimental, it was interesting and it was something worth doing and I commend you for it,” he wrote.
Principal Joe Bova said he has been impressed with the site’s progress.
“I’m very proud of what our newspaper has done in such a short amount of time,” Bova said. “I’ve been amazed by the level of the Dragon Press.”
Senior Alison English, Dragon Press news editor, was not surprised about receiving the highest title.
“We have phenomenal staff this year that can really write,” English said. “We are on the right track to being one of the best, and we’re only in our second year.”
Dragon Press adviser Melissa Wantz also commended the 32 members on staff for the latest honor.
“The quality of the publication is a direct result of the initiative and effort the staff puts in every week of the school year,” she said. “They continually surprise me with how quickly they learn new skills. It’s been a really rewarding year so far, and it’s not even half over.”
In November the Dragon Press placed second in Best of Show at the NSPA’s national convention in Kansas City. The website was recognized last spring by the Ventura County Star as the best high school news site in Ventura County, and by the Tri-County Journalism Education Association as the best high school online newspaper in the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties.
