Two Hawthorne High School students, junior Shamel Dishack and freshman Jessica Layton, received honorable mention in the Harvard Crimson National Journalism Awards, a journalism competition run through Harvard University which “recognizes superb journalism produced at the high school level.”

Both Dishack and Layton submitted feature articles to the National Journalism Awards through Media Center Specialist Theresa DiGeronimo, who selected the two students for the competition based on previous feature articles written for The Clarion. Dishack who is a Clarion contributor, wrote the submitted article, “An Avalanche in the Olympics,” and Layton, who is a staff writer, wrote the submitted article, “Women in Pink: The Gulabi Gang.”

One of the biggest advantages of entering this competition was that Dishack and Layton were able to receive feedback on the articles they submitted. Layton says, “The whole reason I was interested in submitting an article for the National Journalism Awards was that I knew doing so would allow me to get insight from the team at Crimson to allow me to improve my writing. It was honor for Mrs. DiGeronimo to choose me to do something like this.”

Both Dishack and Layton received honorable mention for their submissions and will utilize the feedback they received from the Harvard Crimson in their future writing. Congratulations to both students.

Read both their award winning articles on The Clarion at:

Jessica Layton: https://hhsclarionnews.com/top-stories/2014/02/28/women-in-pink-the-gulabi-gang/

Shamel Dishack: https://hhsclarionnews.com/feature-stories/2014/02/04/an-avalanche-in-the-olympics-part-i/