On April 25, 2025, members of The Echo attended Baruch College’s annual journalism conference alongside 30 other NYC public high schools. At the “Newsies!” awards ceremony, we were named the “winners of the day”—immense progress from our first showing last year.
After careful consideration from the newsroom, we nominated seven outstanding pieces of student journalism published in 2024. The Newsies! recognized five of our submissions, including three that won best in the city! We all held our breaths as the awards were announced, trembling with anxious anticipation.
Audrey Young (’26) won first place citywide in arts reporting with her piece, “Listen Up—How Podcasts are Shaping Today.” This piece beautifully unpacks the current culture of podcasting and its prevalence since COVID-19. It opens discussions surrounding mental health through the lens of our school’s very own podcast: The Mental Breakdown (TMB). Audrey spoke on her victory: “I feel very happy and proud that my piece won first place, and I couldn’t have done it without [Samuel DeSilva (’26), Laura Morel (’26), and Sooyoung Lee (’26)], who shared really insightful quotes about the process behind TMB. It was a huge honor to be able to share their stories and thoughts.”
Ocean Hiller (’26) won first place citywide in opinion for his article, “I’m a Transgender Teen and I’m Tired of Being Used as a Political Pawn.” It powerfully critiques anti-trans legislation through a blend of fact-based research and personal experience. The Newsies! judge also appreciated how he “manages to end the piece on a hopeful note about finding strength in his community.” In addition, Ocean received Youth Journalism International (YJI)’s Jacinta Marie Bunnell Award, which recognizes teen journalists worldwide for impactful opinion writing. YJI commented that Ocean’s work shares a “perspective that is both urgent and deeply personal” with a “strong sense of rhythm and style.” He found the awards “surreal … I poured all of myself into this piece.”
Ella-Devi Weerackody (’25) won first place citywide in photojournalism for her photo of Ocean holding his testosterone. The judge wrote it “stands out for its daring compositional choice … drawing not only the viewer’s visual attention but also their intellectual engagement.” Ella-Devi reflected on the Newsies!: “I loved the feeling of running up to accept my award with Ocean, since we’ve been working together on this project for what feels like forever!! It’s great to get recognition.”
Phoebe Estep (’27) won first place in the New Newspaper Division for her illustration accompanying Ariam Tedla (’27)’s article, “[ERROR]: Lack of Women in the Software Industry.” Her detailed art depicts Hedy Lamar—a famous 20th-century actress and inventor deemed the “mother of Wi-Fi” for her invention of wireless communication technology—in front of lines of code. Phoebe remarked, “I’m so grateful for this opportunity and the attention given to me from The Echo. I want to give credit to Ariam for her reaching out to me and for writing such impactful articles. I believe visual media is an incredibly important form of communication within journalism.”
Zoe Otto (’24) won second place in the New Newspaper Division for her feature writing, “Menstrual Products Are Not A Student Responsibility. Period.” The article investigates the accessibility of menstrual products at HSMSE, sharing personal anecdotes and then interviewing our community to learn more about faculty and student initiatives. The judges said that her article contains “much reporting (and a lot of heart)” and provides the reader with “a full portrait of efforts to provide these products at HSMSE and why it’s important.” Zoe, a co-founder of The Echo, graduated last year and is now studying journalism and neuroscience at Northwestern University.
2024 was the year we were first invited to Baruch College’s journalism conference; we won first place in the New Newspaper Division for the feature writing piece, “Campus Chronicles: A Conversation with CCNY’s President, Dr. Boudreau,” in which Zoe Otto, Orlena Fella (’24), Md Islam (’24), and Raymon Morillo (’24) all contributed to an incredibly well-crafted interview with the president of CCNY. The event was an amazing experience, and it taught The Echo so much about the world of journalism outside of our own newsroom. We’ve come a long way in the past year, in part because of all that we learned from our first taste of competition. We’re so proud of our newsroom’s accomplishments—both within and outside of the Newsies!
Of course, nothing would have been possible without Ms. Hesseltine, our fantastic advisor. She has been instrumental in guiding our newspaper and has supported the student voice through thick and thin. She beamed with joy as The Echo won award after award. Afterwards, alongside the other newspaper advisors, Ms. Hesseltine was invited to the stage and received her own medal reading “Excellent!” She said, “I can’t believe how amazing our newspaper is, especially when we’ve been around for less time and have a smaller student body than many other schools. I think, however, that we’ve set the bar really high and the [Newsies!] will bring those expectations to our work in the future.”
But there wasn’t just an awards ceremony; prior to the Newsies!, we attended seminars covering unique aspects of journalism, from the art of interviewing to the ins and outs of copyright law.
The opinion writing class was led by Indrani Sen, a senior features editor at Fortune with experience at The New York Times Opinion section. She began by sharing exemplary opinion pieces, such as a speech by Greta Thunberg, and opened up the conversation to students as well. The essential aspects she shared: factual evidence, establishment of one’s authority on a subject, rhetorical appeal, a “So What?” explanation, and more. Ms. Sen also warned against common argumentative fallacies, such as false dichotomy—reducing a complex topic to only two sides or ideas—and ad hominem—attacking a person instead of their argument. Her seminar, rich with critical thinking and discussion, will surely enrich The Echo’s Perspectives section.
The coincidentally named Echo Wang spoke to us about interviewing. She shared many anecdotes from her own career—from the US forcing Grindr’s Chinese owners to sell their platform to the spike in Chinese immigrants crossing the US–Mexico border—and what they’ve each taught her. She could not have gotten this far without knowing how to conduct interviews. Getting the interview, she said, was half the battle; people who are not a part of the world of journalism might not be immediately interested in being interviewed unless you learn to “speak their language” and build trust. She emphasized the importance of curiosity and following the natural path of each story: “When you pick up your pen, turn off your prejudices and just listen. Let them lead the story, that’s how you get the facts.”
Lastly, several of us attended the photojournalism seminar taught by Adi Talwar—a contributor to City Limits, the Wall Street Journal, Gothamist, and more. He compared photography to a type of language; his advice to “capture verbs rather than nouns” for dynamic imagery resonated with Ella-Devi. Mr. Talwar also emphasized experimentation with angles, framing, and exposure. However, he stressed the importance of never altering the pixels of an image, as it would warp the truth and potentially end a photojournalist’s career. He concluded by saying that just a simple cellphone camera can be used for photojournalism—everyone can and should try it out.
We were so honored to be a part of the Newsies! this year; thank you to Professor Geanne Belton, her colleagues at Baruch College, and all of the guest speakers. It’s essential for young journalists to be given opportunities to explore and celebrate their passions, and The Echo is so fortunate to participate.
Congratulations to our dedicated student journalists, and thank you to Ms. Hesseltine for championing them. If you haven’t already read and admired their award-winning works, be sure to do so here on our website. HSMSE’s newspaper has come so far in just two years, and we can’t wait to see what we learn and accomplish at next year’s Newsies!