The workshop committee is happy to announce that Lyanneyaliz Hernandez, Eric Wang and Nahjiah Miller have been awarded $1,000 scholarships for their outstanding work during the 2020 Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop.  The award is emblematic of the values and journalistic excellence of Acel Moore, the former Inquirer reporter and columnist who founded the workshop in 1984.

All 20 students were fully engaged throughout the program and it showed in their news articles and photo projects for publication in First Take.  However, the work of these three students stood out. 

Lyanneyaliz really knocked it out of the park with a well-reported, well-written story. Here’s part of what Josh Rosenblat, Lyanneyaliz’s mentor, said about her efforts: “She embraced the process of reporting. She overcame her self-expressed shyness to reach out to sources and interview them about a complex and nuanced topic: gun violence in the Hispanic community in Philadelphia. Her final story was strong, too. But I was most impressed by her process to get there.”

Eric also did a nice job of reporting on student activism at North Penn High.  In a presidential election year, his piece examined civic engagement and high schoolers’ involvement in the political process.

In a photo series, Nahjiah chronicled the activities of Corem Coreano, the director of Galaei, a nonprofit in North Philly that provides a safe space for LGBTQ youths to be and express themselves.

This announcement is usually made in early April during an awards ceremony that caps the monthlong workshop.  However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the student newspaper never went to press, and the awards luncheon was canceled. 

Congratulations are still in order to the Class of 2020.