Preparing Your Portfolio

• Entry material should not exceed 46 one-sided or 23 two-sided pages with application materials not to exceed an additional 10 pages as follows:
  • national application
  • transcript (1-2 pages). This should be opened and presented as part of the portfolio.
  • personal photo (1 page)
  • self-analytical essay (1+ pages)
• Plastic sheet protectors are acceptable. All letters should be opened and included as part of the 46 pages.
• The pages should be inserted into a three-ring binder designed to hold 8-1/2-by-11-inch paper.
• Here are some questions to help you get started on the self-analytical evaluation: How do you feel about journalism? How did you get started in journalism? What have you contributed to journalism? What have you had to go through to achieve? What are your journalism plans for the future? The evaluation should be long enough for the judges to reach a decision as to your creative qualifications and short enough not to be redundant).
• Samples of work should be carefully selected. Provide judges with a good cross section of your best work rather than everything ever produced. Date, name of publication and relevance should be on the page with each sample.
• Include samples showing one or more of the following characteristics. They should be grouped according to what they represent, and these groupings should be labeled.
  1. Skilled and creative use of media content – writing, production, photography, etc.
  2. Inquiring mind and investigative persistence resulting in in-depth study or studies of issues important to the local high school audience, high school students in general, or society.
  3. Courageous and responsible handling of sensitive issues — local or societal — despite threat or imposure of censorship.
  4. Variety of journalistic experiences, each handled in a quality manner — newspaper, yearbook, broadcast, photography, Web design, other design work, community and other outside-of-school journalistic work, etc.
  5. [OPTIONAL] — Sustained and commendable work with community media — examples of any additional work in any genre can be included here.
• At least one issue of your newspaper or magazine or photocopies of relevant spreads from your yearbook (not the entire book) should be enclosed so the judges can see the context of your work. One audio or video tape (CD, DVD, Mini DV) should accompany an entry that focuses on broadcast work. Time is limited to 15 minutes. The tape should be cued up to the work the judges should view or hear and should have the entrant’s name on the tape case.
• Photocopies of letters, clippings and art are acceptable; however, original prints of photographs should accompany entries based on published pictures.

If you want your portfolio returned, please enclose a self-addressed, padded envelope large enough to hold the entry and bearing enough postage to cover the cost of mailing. JEA is not responsible for portfolios not accompanied by return envelopes nor for portfolios lost in transit whether by person or by mail.

Portfolio Checklist

The applicant must include the following in a portfolio:

• The official entry form now available only as in Portable Document Format (PDF).
• A self-analytical evaluation of your “journalistic life,” using your most creative form.
• An action photo of you doing something journalistic — interviewing someone, taking a photograph, designing a page, doing a broadcast standup or talking to your staff. Winners’ photos may be used in JEA publications.
• An official copy of your transcript.
• Three or four letters of recommendation from your adviser, other teachers who know your leadership and journalistic abilities, and practitioners with whom you have worked. A letter from the principal is desirable, but not absolutely necessary.
• Samples of your work carefully seleted to show your quality and diversity of reporting, writing, photography, design, broadcast, online media, etc.
• A self-addressed, padded, stamped envelope large enough to hold your portfolio, if you want it returned.

Portfolio Rubric

The Student Journalist of the Year rubric evaluates candidates candidates in five categories.

• Students should include examples of their work that illustrate the four main categories on the scoring rubric and one optional category.
• Students should organize their portfolio into these categories, labeling each category.