Judge Memorial students win national and state recognition

Friday, Jun. 05, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Judge Memorial Catholic High School English, journalism and yearbook students excelled this year winning international, national and state awards. 

More than two dozen JMCHS students participated in the statewide English Quest competition at Weber State University in March. Each student competed in three of the 19 events that cover a wide spectrum, including various oral interpretation, writing and graphic arts categories.

The JMCHS students results follow.

Editing Test: first place, Paul Oliver; second place, Caroline Holyoak

Film Trailer: first place, Maliha Masud and Sakina Masud

Informative Speaking: third place, Rachel Shubella

Literature Test: first place, Kaitlyn Brimhall; second place, Janell Schroeder

Poster Contest: third place, Vicky Sandoval

Poetry Recitation: third place, Matt Krump

Poetry Writing: second place, Zoe Glasgow

Personal Narrative: third place, Rachel Shubella

Spelling Bee: first place, Caroline Holyoak

Vocabulary Test: first place, Paul Oliver; second place, Christopher Payne.

To win first place, sisters Maliha Masud and Sakina Masud, who are from Pakistan, created a film trailer about Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman, but has vowed to continue to fight for women’s education. The Masud sisters were “empowered and endeared by Malala and the project,” Maliha Masud said.

For the Spelling Bee, Holyoak was given a 17-page, 3,500 word list and one week to study. “I thought I might be good at spelling; I took the test because I wanted to know,” she said.

Also receiving recognition this year were senior Ross Brunetti and junior Madison Reid, who had their work selected for publication in Aerie International, an international literary and art journal. 

In addition, the 2013-2014 “Golden Moments,” edition of the Basilean, the Bulldog yearbook, received an award in the 4A Division of the Northern Utah High School Yearbook Contest sponsored through Weber State University, for “Best Journalistic Quality. (Awards are given the year following publication.) The 2013-2014 yearbook also received nationwide third place honors from the American Scholastic Press Association annual yearbook competition. The editors for the 2013-2014 yearbook were Maddy Dodson, Taylor Gustafson and Cole Preece; advisor was Joan Jensen.

The first JMCHS yearbook was produced in 1949. This is an art elective class, where students blend real-world experience with hands-on work in art, design, layout, photography, writing and interviewing, said Jensen. “The best advice I received was to ‘let the students make their own decisions and do the work.’ What makes the Bulldog year book unique is that the pages are not uniform. It’s almost like building a house; the students pick the theme and build the yearbook.

Linda Simpson and Bryan Jeffreys, who along with Darin Hathaway coached the English Quest team, also have advised Catharsis, JMCHS’ literary magazine. Simpson was the advisor for 21 years before handing it over to Jeffreys this year. 

Catharsis achieved the rank of “Highest Award” in the 2015 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) program to recognize excellence in student literary magazines. This is the second time in 22 years that JMCHS has won the Highest Award; the first was in 2004.

“This is pretty exciting; we have been ranked every year, and in 2014 we were nominated for the Highest Award,” said Linda Simpson. 

The NCTE seeks excellence in writing and school-wide participation in production of literary magazines, said Kent Williamson, executive director, in a congratulatory letter.  

Paul Oliver, the 2015 editor-in-chief of Catharsis, received $500 for best prose in the 2014 issue. “Catharsis is an entirely student-produced publication created and assembled by a group of teenagers,” he said. “We meet entirely outside of school hours, late nights and weekends.”

Oliver has learned leadership and negotiation skills as well as teamwork, from participating on the magazine staff, he said.

The students do their own troubleshooting, said Jeffreys, Catharsis advisor. “Most years there are about 600 submissions from freshmen through seniors, of which about 60 pieces are selected by the Catharsis staff, who advertise for submissions, read and critique, and then come to a consensus as to which ones will be selected. There is a staff for each category: poetry, art, prose, photography and publicity. Some years, music is also submitted.” 

“Something that is special about Catharsis is that students want a copy of all the issues published from the time they are freshmen until they graduate so they have a complete set,” said Simpson.

Although the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs was new to JMCHS this year, junior Alex Maxwell was selected as one of 18 fellows to participate in the first Student Reporting Labs Academy in Washington, D.C. in June and July. He was chosen by a committee composed of the SRL staff and teachers; he will work alongside other middle and high school students and public media mentors to produce original news content. 

“Alex is a wonderful student who is dedicated to improving his video and storytelling skills,” said Chris Sloan, JMCHS’ AP English, media and digital photography teacher. “He’s done a number of quality videos this year, but the one that stands out is the feature he and David Jenny produced about Utah’s laws that allow teachers to carry guns in schools.”

“Collaborating with PBS NewsHour has been a great experience that has taught me a lot about how to be a better journalist,” said Maxwell. “Over the year I have learned many valuable new skills and how to create better productions. The video piece about Utah laws allowing teachers to carry guns in schools, together with PBS guidance, helped us learn to conduct better interviews, get better film, and make our piece feel professional. I’m excited to have the opportunity to learn even more, and get hands-on experiences this summer at the SRL academy.”