The Journalism Education Association has named Michael Hernandez, Mira Costa High School, Manhattan Beach, Calif., as its 2014 National Broadcast Adviser of the Year sponsored by Lindenwood University. This is the first time this award has been presented by the association.

Michael Hernandez, 2014 National Broadcast Adviser of the Year

The JEA National High School Broadcast Adviser of the Year program is designed to honor outstanding high school advisers and their exemplary work from the previous year, as well as throughout their careers. Applicants must be members of the Journalism Education Association to be eligible for this award.

Hernandez will have the opportunity to travel to the convention, along with a $1,000 personal prize and a $1,000 award for his school, either to purchase equipment for the broadcast classroom or to fund student summer workshop scholarships. He will also contribute a monthly column on JEADigitalMedia.org, and have a chance to address advisers at an awards luncheon.

Hernandez founded the media arts program at Mira Costa nearly 15 years ago, and advises the “Mustang Morning News,” which is broadcast twice weekly during the school year. The live broadcasts are distributed to the campus via closed-circuit TV and are then posted on the program’s award-winning website. About 50 students are involved in the broadcast program.

He has published numerous articles and blog posts, primarily on JEADigitalMedia.org, and he has been a speaker at national journalism conventions the past three years. Mustang News students have won a variety of awards, most recently earning a National Scholastic Press Association Broadcast Pacemaker in November 2013.

“I teach this class as a journalism program, not as a technology or career-training program,” Hernandez wrote in his application. “The emphasis in my classes is on developing courageous journalists who can think and work independently, guided by predetermined codes of ethics and a sense of purpose. From day one I make clear that they are responsible for everything they report – good or bad.”

The selection committee, made up of former broadcast professionals and student media advisers, also named several runners-up in this competition. Distinguished Broadcast Advisers are Alyssa Boehringer, MHS1, McKinney (Texas) High School and Don Goble, LHS-TV and Films, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis, Mo. Distinguished Advisers receive $500 for equipment or scholarships for their school programs.

Special Recognition Broadcast Advisers are Michelle Turner, Blue Jay Journal TV, Washington (Mo.) High School, and Matthew Rasgorshek, Warrior Television, Westside High School, Omaha, Neb.

National Broadcast Adviser of the Year awards will be presented April 12 during the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention in San Diego.

Lindenwood University, founded in 1827 and the title sponsor of this award, is an independent liberal arts university offering more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in diverse areas of study and traditional and accelerated formats, including online. Lindenwood operates residential campuses in St. Charles, Mo., and Belleville, Ill., as well as 10 regional centers, and 25 extension sites throughout Missouri.