Writer's Block

Iolani No Ka Oi!

Kudos to my alma mater, Iolani School, for taking first place at the Hawaii State High School Journalism Awards this week. The Imua Iolani won for best newspaper, best single issue, best editorial and best illustration.

I checked out the latest issue of the Imua online and was impressed by the solid reporting and writing. The reporters covered campus issues that made me smile -- the lead story in March was about the confiscation of two benches in the seniors' hangout area "after numerous phallic and other indecent drawings were scrawled on the tabletops" (ahhh, high school) -- but you know these are the issues students are really talking about.

In my opinion, this is where a student paper can excel, both as a learning experience and as a work of journalism: by covering real student issues. In contrast, when I served as an advisor to the MCC student paper a few years ago, there was relatively little interest by the students in covering campus issues. Some were gung ho to cover controversial developments or the county elections, while others just wanted to write movie reviews. With so many interesting and important stories going uncovered right there on campus, it seemed like a wasted opportunity. Student journalists are in a better position than anyone else to cover their community -- their school.

(Disclaimer -- my experience with the MCC paper was several years ago, so my comments in no way reflect on the current program.)

Imua editor Keyana Stevens has said she stood up to peers who told her not to say "bad things,"and wrote pointed editorials on campus issues. "It's not to put anyone down, but so the problem can be recognized and be fixed later," she's quoted as saying. That's what journalism is all about.

We should be proud of our student journalists here on Maui too -- Kamehameha Schoools Maui won the merit award (intermediate level), and took awards for best news story and best editorial cartoon.

Bravo.