Kingwood Park junior Sydney Ortiz was named the National High School Writer of the Year as the Panthers received 16 honors at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention.
With a portfolio of stories from the 2024-25 school year, Ortiz became the first high school journalist from the Greater Houston area to win national Writer of the Year since the award’s inception in 2018. She placed third in the same category a year earlier.
In addition, she was awarded a full scholarship (worth $7,695) to attend The School of the New York Times for two weeks next summer, where she plans to study Political Reporting. Last year, more than 14,000 students applied for the summer sessions at the School of the New York Times for only 1,700 seats.
Kingwood Park’s yearbook also made school history with a program-high fourth place in the Best of Show contest. Nine Kingwood Park journalism students attended the conference, which drew more than 5,300 students from 46 states and eight countries to Nashville from Nov. 13-16.
You can see links to some of the winning work below and the students who succeeded in challenging competitions.
NSPA Individual Achievement Awards (Work completed during 2024-25 school year)
Sydney Ortiz
Writer of the Year, 1st Place
News Story of the Year - Honorable Mention
Sports Story of the Year - Honorable Mention
Blog of the Year - Honorable Mention
Photojournalist of the Year - Honorable Mention
Zachary Ford
Sports Reaction Photo, 2nd Place
Multimedia Sports Story, 5th Place
NSPA Best of Show (Work completed this year)
Staff recognition
Yearbook (225-276 pages) - 4th Place (highest finish in program history)
Individual Awards
Sydney Ortiz, 1st Place - Feature Story
Chloe Sales, 2nd Place - Broadcast Feature Story
Tricia Darcy, 5th Place - Feature Photo
Tricia Darcy, 9th Place - Newsmagazine Design
On-Site Competition Results
Sydney Ortiz, Superior - Feature Photography
Ella Hickman, Excellent - Yearbook Design: Inside Pages
Peyton Smithson, Excellent - Literary Magazine: Photography
Tricia Darcy, Excellent - Photography Portfolio
Pictured Above: (Front Row) Pilar Retamales, Danielle Nalley, Peyton Smithson, Ella Hickman. (Back Row) Sydney Ortiz, Cameron Minatrea, Tricia Darcy, Paisley Thomas, Rayden DeSouza
Press release was provided by Kingwood Park High School Journalism.