Seven HW Media students attended the annual Los Angeles Journalism Education Association (LAJEA) Regional Write-Offs at California State University, Northridge on Feb. 22. Five students placed in the top 10, with Riya Iyer ’27 placing first in Opinion Writing and James Corman ’27 placing second in Feature Writing. Five of the students who participated are eligible for the JEA State High School Media Contest at El Camino College on Saturday, April 5 include Audrey Herrera ’27 (4th in Newswriting), Colin Ho ’26 (8th in Newswriting), Emmeline Chan ’27 (6th in Opinion).
Assistant News Editor Luca Gonzalez ’26, who competed in Newswriting, said he felt the topic that he wrote on was relevant to the current political climate.
“I wrote about the new immigration policies under the Trump administration,” Gonzalez said. “Compared to last year’s CSUN, I felt that this event had a lot more meaning. Since the topic was something that was directly affecting people I knew and one that I felt closely connected to as a Latino myself. I was greatly interested in everything the speaker had to say because she seemed well-versed in the subject and also appeared to be working towards a good cause. It honestly was eye-opening hearing her lay out the facts about the recent deportations as well as how students like myself are being affected.”
Gonzalez said he came away from the event more interested about writing news and said he became a better journalist.
“I learned that I still have a lot of room to grow,” Gonzalez said. “Seeing and competing with other schools was something that helped me realize how little I actually knew about journalism and article writing. It made me want to strive to be better and to continue to develop my skills following the event. I chose to enter the competition because of my desire to strengthen my abilities as a journalist. At school, you don’t actually have anyone challenging your abilities, so being stuck in that bubble can lead to lack of improvement without any testing of one’s own capabilities as a writer.”
Corman, who competed in Feature Writing, said he found it interesting that all of the competitors had different angles on the same topic.
“A guest speaker spoke to us and we had fifty minutes to write an article incorporating what she said,” Corman said. “The guest speaker was a dog breeder who specializes in Pomeranians. Her dog Winter Blossom recently won a Grand Champion in the Westminster Dog Show. In my article, I focused on her journey battling cancer while still breeding dogs. After writing, I spoke with some other Features writers, and their pieces focused on very different, but equally interesting aspects of the speaker’s talk. Feature writing is crucial because the longer form allows readers to connect more emotionally to the story than is possible with a curt news brief.”
Layout Assistant and Staff Writer Chloe Kim ’27 said she was able to identify what skills she wanted to improve after receiving feedback on her article.
“I chose to compete because I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice writing and assess where my skills are,” Kim said. “After getting feedback from the judges, I knew what I had to work on, which was AP Style. I also got to learn a lot more about how President Donald Trump’s immigration policies impacted high school students. It was very interesting.”
