Marist High School's student newspaper staff earned superior achievement for overall layout and excellent achievement for overall newspaper at the 30th Annual Scholastic Press Association of Chicago/McCormick Foundation High School Media competition. This marked the tenth consecutive year that the Sentinel earned awards in both of these categories in the competition.
RedHawks journalists earning individual awards this year included senior Matthew Warakomski, taking a superior achievement award for community story writing. Junior Patrick Maxwell took a superior achievement award for sports photography. Excellent achievement awards were earned by senior PJ Cunningham (serious commentary writing and non-sports photography) and senior Isabella Schreck for feature writing. For the second consecutive year, Schreck also won the feature writing write-off competition, held virtually this year on Monday, March 22.
Since 2012, 46 Marist journalists have earned 67 awards in this annual competition. In addition, Marist President Larry Tucker won the SPAC/McCormick Foundation Administrator of the Year award in 2013, while Solomon Davis ‘16 was named the Chicago High School Student Journalist of the Year in 2016.
The Sentinel is advised by John J. Gonczy, a certified journalism educator, president of the Illinois Journalism Education Association and a long-time board member for the Scholastic Press Association of Chicago. Gonczy has also served on the Illinois High School Association’s journalism competition advisory board three times, receiving the IHSA’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. In 2005, He was the only Catholic high school teacher in the nation to win the Journalism Education Association’s Rising Star Award and has been inducted into the IJEA’s Hall of Fame.
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Pictured from left: Isabella Schreck, PJ Cunningham, and Patrick Maxwell