On Wednesday, April 28, Western Kentucky University (WKU) announced the winners of the Mark of Excellence Journalism awards, sponsored by the WKU School of Media. This statewide competition is open to all schools with journalism programs, and any students within those programs can submit nominations. Highlands students from both HHS Film and Broadcast and HHS Journalism entered their work in various broadcast categories, newspaper/online categories, and most valuable staffer categories. The results are as followed:

Broadcast Categories

Best High School Broadcast

Second Place – HHS Film and Broadcast

News Videography

First Place – Senior Marisa Bohan and crew with American Sign Museum Spotlight

Sports Story

First Place — Junior Macy Hedenberg with Highlands High School Swim Team Update

Feature Story 

Third Place – Senior Marisa Bohan and crew with Rabbit Hash: The Kentucky Town with a Dog Mayor

Newspaper/Online Categories

Best High School News Website
Third place – HHS Hilltopper

Sports Story
Second place –  Junior Chelsie Cooley with The resilience and persistence of a Ladybird

Sports Photography
Third place – Seniors Lexie Crawford and Maggie Schroeder with PHOTO GALLERY: Varsity Girls Soccer racks up another shutout in 3-0 win against NCC

Feature Story
First place – Senior Juli Russ with With Privilege Comes Responsibility – three soccer players take a knee, protesting institutionalized racism

Multimedia Production
First place – Senior Juli Russ with Scrapwood Syd: The passion of a student woodworker

Most Valuable Staffer Categories

Most Valuable Newspaper Staff Member
Runner-up – Senior Lexie Crawford

Most Valuable Yearbook Staff Member
First place – Senior Tessa Killen

Congratulations to all of our Bluebird journalists!