By Claire Goldsmith

The Spectrum won the Best of Show award for junior high newspapers at the National Scholastic Press Association’s Spring Convention in Seattle April 12-15.

Adviser and English teacher Steve Chae and history teacher Karen Fukushima took eight students to the convention. Several received individual awards in the Journalism Education Association’s Middle School Write-Off.

J.J. Woronoff ’15 earned a Superior award in Feature Writing, the highest possible distinction, for his story about programmer Cameron Cohen ’16, who donated his iPhone app’s profits to Mattel Children’s Hospital. 

“I was really surprised about winning the individual prize,” Woronoff said. “It was submitted to a national convention, and this year was the first year that I started journalism.” 

Elijah Aktarzad ’15 and Chris Han ’15 won Excellent awards for Photography. Sarah Evall ’15, Nikta Mansouri ’15 and Jake Saferstein ’15 won an Excellent award for group layout, and Saferstein also received a second Excellent rank for individual layout.