JEA Rising Stars with 8 mugshots, Alexi bailey, katrina Berry-Ivy, Sue Flaming, Kirsten Gilliland, CJE, Joseph Maffey, Sarah McCambridge, Luc Nguyen, Chris Pearcy, CJE

By Louisa Avery, MJE, JEA awards chair

The Journalism Education Association names eight teachers with its Rising Star Award to honor their commitment to scholastic journalism and media advising. They will be recognized at the Fall JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.

Rising Star awards are presented to advisers who are in their first five years of advising a school media program, have shown dedication to scholastic journalism and have had success advising at least one media program.

The 2023 Rising Stars are:

  • Alexis Bailey, Rampart High School, Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • Katrina Berry-Ivy, Tupelo (Mississippi) High School
  • Sue Flaming, Caney Valley Schools, Ramona, Oklahoma
  • Kirsten Gilliland, CJE, Omaha (Nebraska) Bryan High School
  • Joseph Maffey, Lyons Township High School, La Grange, Illinois
  • Sarah McCambridge, Bishop Miege High School, Roeland Park, Kansas
  • Luc Nguyen, Chantilly (Virginia) High School
  • Chris Pearcy, CJE, Logansport (Indiana) High School
Sample yearbook pages from Rampart High School.

Alexis Bailey took over as Rampages yearbook adviser and print journalism teacher in 2001 at her alma mater, Rampart High School. 

“I sat in the very seats of room 402 back in 2007-08 taking a journalism class,” Bailey said. “The curriculum that I learned over 10 years ago was the exact curriculum I walked into in 2021.

“While many of the practices in the journalism profession are consistent with history, it was very clear that what our school community and students needed was a refreshment in how we tell the stories of our people.”

Bailey made changes to the curriculum in order to improve the program, and said she has “begun to develop what exactly the journalism program at Rampart needs, what our students need, and what our community needs.”

Bailey’s colleague Patrick Moring, CJE, 2022 Broadcast Adviser of the Year, said Bailey “revitalized the students to new heights of journalistic excellence” when she began advising. 

“Her yearbook students immediately sensed her dedication to quality journalism and became dedicated in turn,” Moring said. “She has created a program environment that produces the highest caliber of student journalism and student journalists that understand professionalism, ethics, and all the key components of good storytelling and photography.”

Under her leadership, her students have received All-Colorado honors and several Best in Show prizes from both the Colorado Student Media Association and the National Scholastic Press Association.

“She inspires everyone around her to be better,” Moring said. “I  have had the unique opportunity to be her journalism teaching partner at Rampart, and I can say without reservation, she has made me a better teacher. 

YouTube channel preview from Tupelo High School.

Katrina Berry-Ivy is a broadcast journalism teacher at Tupelo High School in Tupelo, Mississippi. She advises the weekly newsmagazine program, WTHS. 

Berry-Ivy had more than 10 years of professional broadcast experience before she began advising in January 2019. 

“She inherited a fractured working environment and a broadcast that was mostly humorous and juvenile, but she turned it into a statewide powerhouse in short order,” Mississippi Scholastic Press Association Executive Director R.J. Morgan, MJE, said. “She started developing a pipeline of talent by recruiting students from an early age. She lobbied local businesses and media outlets to help with funding. She changed the show format to something more akin to a professional show, then empowered her fledgling staff to make it their own.”

Quoting Maya Angelou, Berry-Ivy said “In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” She made promoting the diversity of the program one of her top priorities.

“As I redirected the focus of the class from skits to covering news impacting the school community, more students became interested in joining the program,” Berry-Ivy said. “The result is a staff that better reflects the diversity of the school. The diversity of the staff has developed a richness in their storytelling.”

She extends the focus on diversity by inviting speakers to the classroom, including a journalist who developed a Spanish newscast and women who work in communications for Women’s History Month. Additionally, students research African American journalists during Black History Month.

“Empowerment begins with learning and I am continually looking for ways to teach my students how to become better storytellers,” Berry-Ivy said. 

Sample yearbook pages from Caney Valley Schools.

Sue Flaming teaches biology and has advised The Trojan yearbook for the past five years at Caney Valley Schools. In the first year, she doubled the size of the program and the number of ad sales. 

“Despite the fact that she is a biology teacher, Mrs. Flaming has dedicated herself to learning and teaching journalism to the Trojan Publication staff,” said editor-in-chief Kennedy Virden. “She may have been a Biology teacher when she first started her adviser career, but now she is leading a staff that is making award winning yearbooks and learning life long skills that no other program at our school offers.”

Two weeks before school started in 2018, Flaming was at a professional development for science teachers when she received a call from her principal asking for a favor. 

“A favor,” Fleming said. “That is a strange term for the job of yearbook adviser. I didn’t realize at the time how big a favor it would be.”

When she agreed to take on the yearbook, there were three to four upperclassmen who were assigned to different class periods based on when their schedule allowed. The book was filled with posed photos and lacked captions and copy.

“Sue took over a small school yearbook ‘project’ four and a half years ago and has transformed it into a vibrant journalism program demonstrating student-led content creation and management, creative writing and design, critical thinking, and collaborative problem solving,” Herff Jones representative Kris Hooper, CJE, said. “It is now a platform capable of launching her students into any career they choose with these valuable life skills.”’

Sample news pages from Bryan High School.

Kirsten Gilliland, CJE, currently advises the yearbook and newspaper at Omaha (Nebraska) Bryan High School and will be introducing more broadcasting into the program. She formerly advised the yearbook and newspaper at Grand Island Northwest, where she faced a difficult situation. 

“In late March of 2022, I was told student staffers couldn’t use preferred names in bylines and that sources couldn’t be identified by preferred names or pronouns,” Gilliland said. 

Her editor was one student affected by this change. 

“In mid-May, I was told the newspaper class and paper would be cut because the superintendent and school board were unhappy with the last issue’s content, specifically the LGBT+ ones,” Gilliland said.

Retired adviser Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE, knew Gilliland as a student in the Journalism Education master’s degree program at Kent State University when Gilliland pressed the JEA Scholastic Press Right’s Panic Button and asked for help with this situation. 

“Kirsten dealt with the media — everything from an excellent, thorough piece by a local reporter, who broke the story — to the New York Times reporter who presented it to a national audience,” Perkins Bowen said. “In every case, Kirsten was calm and professional — or at least seemed to be — and kept the students’ concerns in the forefront, as they should be.

“She clearly gave good advice to the editor who also eventually spoke to the media. Between the two of them and the national media coverage, the administration backed down and let the publication continue, though without Kirsten.”

Gilliland has since found a new advising position and joined the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee. 

Sample yearbook pages from Lyons Township High School.

Joseph Maffey advises Tabulae yearbook the Menagerie literary magazine at Lyons Township High School, La Grange, Illinois.  

Christ Presbyterian Academy adviser Heather Nagel Yost, CJE, first reached out to Maffey because she was starting a literary magazine and his magazine was a Pacemaker recipient. 

“Even though he didn’t know me, within an hour I had a response from him,” Nagel said. “Within a week, I had a box full of literary magazines from him delivered to my classroom. He hand wrote a note describing the elements that would help me most in each one. He did not hesitate to tell me everything he could about the creation of a literary magazine, from gathering submissions to layout to building the staff. I was blown away by his kindness and willingness to help an adviser he had never met.

“Without him, our literary magazine would not be where it is today. With his help and support, it got a Pacemaker nomination.”

Former yearbook editor-in-chief Kerry Conneely said she was a shy student who turned in stories on time and stayed under the radar until Maffey asked if she’d considered applying for EIC on the plane ride back from the 2019 national convention in Anaheim.

“He saw strong leadership in me that I never did,” Conneely said. “Without his confidence in me and his motivation, I never would have applied or had the amazing experience I did as an EIC.”

“His best trait as an adviser, I can say with confidence, is his ability to empower his students to feel confident in their leadership. 

Sample yearbook pages from Bishop Miege High School.

Sarah McCambridge has advised the newspaper and yearbook for five years at Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, Kansas. She recently began serving a two-year term on the Kansas Scholastic Press Association Board and was the 2010 recipient of the JEA Future Journalism Teacher Scholarship.

Newspaper staff members Mary-Kathryn Wert and Alena Gillespie said McCambridge never fails to push students to be their best, which is reflected in their numerous awards and the All-American ranking from NSPA. 

“She encourages students with her positivity and requires them to try every aspect of the journalistic process,” Wert and Gillespie said. “Under McCambridge, every student has learned how to write, edit, photograph, and design for the newspaper. She emphasizes the importance of being well-versed in every area of journalism. By trying everything, students are easily able to find the place they feel most comfortable or are interested in pursuing.”

Yearbook representative Tracy Tuley said McCambridge stands out as one of the “most impactful and dedicated” journalism advisers she has worked with. 

“She has a ready-for-anything attitude that inspires her students to embrace challenges and opportunities,” Tuley said. “She teaches them the importance of teamwork, quality, budgeting, deadlines, storytelling, accountability and hard work. She also equips them with the technical skills they need to create professional-looking publications using the Adobe Suite, especially InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop.

“Sarah is an excellent communicator and has a passion for journalism that is contagious. She always goes above and beyond to help her students succeed and grow as journalists.”

Sample literary magazine and yearbook pages from Chantilly High School.

Luc Nguyen advises the Andromeda literary magazine and Chantilly yearbook at Chantilly (Virginia) High School.

“I knew within 10 minutes that Luc Nguyen would be my successor to advise Odyssey, the Chantilly High School yearbook,” retired adviser Mary Kay Downes, MJE, said. “To be explicit, I knew 10 minutes into his interview to join our English department. Wisely, I waited awhile before sharing this information with him.”

Downes was able to plant the seed by inviting him to attend the November 2019 national convention in Washington, D.C. The next year, he began advising the literary magazine, and he took over the yearbook the following year when Downes retired. 

“Luc exudes both joy and intelligent competence,” Downes said. “He absorbed a great deal from the four editors he inherited for his first book and knew instinctively to listen to them. Thus, he wisely gave them full rein.”

Yearbook editor Alexis Huff said Nguyen truly stands out as a teacher and that he has done an “immense” amount of work in his new role. 

“His work as an adviser focuses on guiding his students to make decisions, while also emphasizing a pure student created book,” Huff said. “Mr. Nguyen wants students to be able to come to conclusions on their own, but offers them help along the way. 

“Mr. Nguyen strives to make a positive and inclusive work environment where anyone can feel like they belong. He manages to connect with each and every one of his students, making him a great teacher who many students and staff members look up to.”

Samples news site pages from Logansport High School.

Chris Pearcy, CJE, advises the news website Magpie at Logansport High School; the site won the Hoosier Star Award in its second year as a website. 

“Chris inherited a program that required him to basically start over,” Zionsville Community High School adviser Lauren Wagner, MJE, said. “After more than doubling his staff size in the first year, Chris worked closely with his administration to secure funding to make sure his students could attend local journalism workshops and upgrade their website to keep up with his growing, enthusiastic staff.”

Pearcy arranged for both the yearbook and newspaper staff to attend the state conference and Ball State University’s J-Day. 

“Arranging for a bus in our corporation is not an easy thing, but Mr. Pearcy was tenacious about getting transportation for our kids,” yearbook adviser Beth Myers said. “This was my first time attending any of these events and the information I learned was invaluable.

“This year with his encouragement, I submitted our yearbook to the Hoosier Star Evaluation Service. When I received the feedback, it was less than optimal. Mr. Pearcy sat down with me and helped me through what needed to be done to create a better yearbook. With his suggestions, we narrowed down three things that would make a difference.”

Wagner said this is one example of how Pearcy finds ways to pay forward the advice and help he has received.

“He joined the [Indiana High School Press Association] adviser board as an at-large member and has been actively involved in meetings,” Wagner said. “He also encouraged one of his editors to join the student board, helping to reinforce that key editorial leadership component.”

Lindsay Porter

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