
The Journalism Education Association names nine teachers as Rising Stars 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 2024 Rising Stars are:
- Therasia Brautigam, Rock Bridge High School, Columbia, Missouri
- Melissa Cameron, Casa Roble High School, Orangevale, California
- Benjamin Campbell, Edmond (Oklahoma) North High School
- Leslie Fireman, West Chicago (Illinois) High School
- Whitney Huang, CJE, The Harker School, San Jose, California
- Emma Kinney, CJE, Indianola (Iowa) High School
- Heidi Kniseley, Mission Hills High School, San Marcos, California
- Shelby Nickells, Rouse High School, Leander, Texas
- Deborah Porterfield, CJE, Bronx (New York) River High School
Therasia Brautigam has advised the newspaper and yearbook at Rock Bridge HighSchool in Columbia, Missouri, for four years. During that time, both publications have been recognized with state and national awards.
Former newspaper editors Shubha Gautam, Julia Kim and McKenna Parker, said they wouldn’t each be moving across the country to pursue journalism in college without Brautigam’s influence on them.
“Even as she took a backseat on a creative level, she remained firmly by our side when our staff faced the possibility of censorship concerning a staff editorial that was highly critical of a local parent’s group on Facebook for their anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric or of authority figures glossing over questions on racial and class disparities within our school district,” they wrote. “Despite fears for her job brought on by the potential for backlash, she guided us to advocate for more than just our school newspaper but for the rights of all student journalists by looping us into the ongoing fight to pass the Cronkite New Voices Act in Missouri.”
The former editors said Brautigam and her class represented a safe haven.
“It is rare to find a place in our conservative town where you are actively encouraged to cover stories on social issues and their impacts on marginalized groups,” they wrote. “But as we read daily headlines of state legislators wanting to ban critical race theory and/or erase LGBTQ+ people from school curriculum, Ms. Brautigam’s classroom was always there when we were compelled to combat these oppressive narratives through our own publication.”
Melissa Cameron has taught at Casa Roble High School in Orangevale, California, for her entire 26-year career and recently completed her fifth year as yearbook adviser.
Retired Casa Robles adviser Dan Austin worked with Cameron for more than 20 years before she took over as yearbook adviser.
“When I retired as adviser to Rampages, I was struggling to find enough kids to put yearbook in the master schedule,” Austin said. “I always thought I was a solid recruiter and wanted to blame my struggles on lack of administrative support and the pressure kids were under to fill their schedule with AP classes. Ha! By the time I walked out the door in 2019, Melissa had rostered over 40 kids for the following year. And as Melissa will tell you — every kid contributed, every kid had a job. When I stopped by to visit one day, the energy was back. Kids were busy, kids were bustling, kidswere beaming.”
Since Cameron began advising, the yearbook has been recognized at the state and national level. However, Cameron really excels at creating a family atmosphere on staff.
“My students end up hanging out with one another outside of school,” Cameron said. “They support one another and argue over decisions, but they avoid useless drama. They are probably closer than many people who are actually related by blood. I love these kids as if they are mine because they become mine. Their failures are my failures, and their success is my success.”
Benjamin Campbell has advised Edmond (Oklahoma) North High School’s broadcasting program, Husky Network, for five years.
Laura Negri, MJE, adviser at Alief Kerr High School in Houston, was Campbell’s JEA mentor for two years. Originally, his students were working exclusively on producing live athletic events.
“Ben saw the potential audience for broader journalism coverage in the school community and the desire in his students to capture more voices and more stories,” Negri said, so he added Broadcast Journalism and Sports Journalism. “In the last three years, the number of students in his classes has increased,their web presence has grown, and the local community has responded positively.”
Senior Keely Crawford, news editor for Husky Network and special correspondent and
producer for PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs, said Campbell has made all of his students better people.
“He takes all of my peers’ and my strengths and weaknesses and develops them into great journalists and moreover a great team,” Crawford said. “He’s helped grow our program to a national award-winning level while keeping our integrity and core values intact. He’s created a capacity for culture and community and a safe space for all. Most importantly, Mr. Campbell inspires us to be us and to be proud of ourselves and our work.”
Campbell has also helped build the other journalism programs in his school by supporting the newspaper and yearbook staffs in creating an online newspaper, The Pawprint, with collaboration from his broadcast classes on video content.
Leslie Fireman advises the online publication at West Chicago (Illinois) High School. Fireman took over a club with one reporter on staff and brought it back to life in three short years. Now the Chronicle is a class and has won regional, state and national awards, including a Pacemaker.
JEA Illinois state director Katie Fernandez was Fireman’s mentor for two years.
“In the two years that I have worked with Leslie I have seen her take a dying club and turn
it into an award winning publications class,” Fernandez said. “To take the club from one reporter to winning a Pacemaker is unbelievable. What makes it more impressive, to me, is that she very much did it on her own. She did not have any co-advisers or even other teachers to chaperone trips with her.”
Fernandez said she especially admired the time Fireman spent doing team building activities.
“She really created a community in her classroom,” Fireman said. “The students worked together on fun activities which brought them closer and built trust among the team. Students who were just placed in her class became part of the team. They bought into her plan and contributed to the website. Leslie worked with her editors to find something for everyone to do. They worked on building each student’s strengths and if anyone had a new idea, it was never turned down. Instead, Leslie and the editors worked with the student to figure out how to make it work. Again reinforcing the idea of teamwork.”
Photo by Ben Green
Whitney Huang, CJE, serves as director of journalism at The Harker School in San Jose, California. Huang advises print newspaper Winged Post, online news website Harker Aquila and senior feature magazine Humans of Harker. An alumna of the school, she also teaches Intro to Journalism, Newspaper and Advanced Newspaper classes. She serves on the board of directors of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California and is a member of the advisory council of the National Scholastic Press Association.
Retired California adviser Tracy Anne Sena has observed Huang working with her students in The Harker School publications labs and presenting at regional and national journalism conventions.
“In the three short years since she entered the classroom as a newbie to scholastic journalism, Whitney has assumed the leadership of a legacy scholastic media program and mentored another new adviser who has taken over the yearbook,” Sena said. “Replacing a beloved and highly-skilled director of scholastic journalism is a daunting task for even a well-seasoned teacher, yet Whitney has done so with aplomb and has made the program truly her own. Her students respect her and her decisions, and they look to her for leadership.”
Recent graduate and former Harker Aquila Co-Editor-in-Chief Ella Yee was one of Huang’s students for three years.
“Ms. Huang’s drive, persistence and compassion have consistently inspired me,” Yee said. “These defining characteristics of hers not only elevate Harker’s journalism program but also set a remarkable example for student journalists like myself.”
Emma Kinney, CJE, teaches journalism and advises yearbook at Indianola (Iowa) High School.
During high school, Kinney was a student editor in Des Moines (Iowa) East High School under adviser Natalie Niemeyer-Lorenz, MJE, and in 2021 came back as a student teacher in her class.
“Even as a high school student, Emma talked about being an adviser,” Niemeyer-Lorenz said. “As a student teacher, she immediately jumped in, making personal connections with students and sharing not only her knowledge but extreme enthusiasm with the students. She has carried this mindset into her own classroom and her program is thriving, which is no surprise to anyone who knows her.”
Kinney grew the program from 40 students in 2021-22 to approximately 150 students for the 2024-25 year.
“Prior to me being hired as the adviser, the yearbook was not journalistic and the school was not a member of the Iowa High School Press Association,” Kinney said. “Yearbook had a negative connotation because students viewed the course as an ‘easy A’ and the teachers were bombarded with students being pulled from their classes constantly and not returning.
“When I took over and we shifted to a rigorous program that held students to high journalistic standards, the reputation has changed. Teachers have told me how professional my students are when they come in to interview students, the administrative team trusts my students when they see them in the hallway, students want to be interviewed for the yearbook, and students want to be in yearbook.”
Heidi Kniseley teaches at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos, California, and advises the Cardinal and Gold yearbook program, Silvertip Online Newspaper, Silvertip Talks the Podcast, and the ONEtv program that broadcasts twice a week. Additionally, in her second year at Mission Hills, her 2024-25 students plan to produce the Silvertip, a print magazine.
“My goal is to create a rigorous journalism program that empowers students to make choices, share their passions and apply real-world skills,” Kniseley said. “I want my students to demonstrate their knowledge through hands-on projects and meaningful assignments. There are so many aspects to journalism and I feel passionately about helping students find their paths to become the best journalists they can be.”
JEA Director-at-large Debra Klevens, CJE, met Kniseley at the 2024 Spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in Kansas City.
“Our conversation began casually, but it quickly became apparent that Heidi is far from ordinary,” Klevens said. “Before teaching high school journalism, Heidi advised at a K-8 school and fell in love with yearbook. The district saw her ability to foster a thriving journalistic environment even under unprecedented circumstances and knew she could further grow the programs, hence her move to the high school. Heidi embracedthis challenge too.
“What impressed me even more was the breadth of Heidi’s teaching assignment. She juggles yearbook, broadcast, newspaper, and an introductory journalism course — evidence of her versatility and commitment to providing a well-rounded educational experience for her students. Heidi’s humility, a rare trait in the field, further stresses her exceptional character.”
Shelby Nickells advises the newspaper and yearbook at Rouse High School in Leander, Texas. The 2023 yearbook, Replay, was a CSPA Gold Medalist.
Former Rouse High School adviser Kel Lemons was nervous when her successor left after three years, but she soon realized there was nothing to worry about. As a creative accounts manager for Jostens, she still works closely with the program.
“Shelby Nickells was the best thing that ever happened to Rouse journalism,” Lemons said. “Shelby is a natural in the classroom. She uses her journalism knowledge to train staff, but it’s her passion and energy that engages them. From her very first year, I watched the students take to her, soaking in her instruction and bonding over pop culture. Her infectious energy is contagious. You can’t leave her classroom without smiling or laughing, feeling hope for the journalism world.”
Replay Yearbook Editor Zoe Clark has had Nickells as a teacher for all four years. She appreciates how Nickells always gets to know each one of her students personally.
“It has been great to come to school and be able to bond with Ms. Nickells and other staffers on something we all love,” Clark said. “This is how she runs her class, her UIL events, and even her daily life. She runs towards passions and interests full-speed ahead so that others may experience the joy it can bring. She is the epitome of a great teacher, who fuels the motivation of an entirely new generation.”
Deborah Porterfield, CJE, advises the school newspaper at Bronx (New York) River High School.
Press Pass NYC Founder and Director, Lara Bergen, CJE, got to know Porterfield through her involvement in Press Pass NYC.
“A former journalist, Debbi had thought she’d left that world behind her when she became a special education teacher,” Bergen said. “Years in, however, as soon as she heard about an opportunity to get help starting a student newspaper at her high-needs school in the Bronx (where fewer than one in 10 schools have student journalism programs), Debbi jumped at the chance. And while she was not an ELA teacher who could easily add a journalism course or elective to her repertoire, she seized again on the opportunity she had working with students outside of their regular credit classes to organize a staff.”
She has presented at national and local conventions about diversifying the journalism classroom, both alone and with her JEA mentor. Additionally, her staff presented on the value of student journalism for their superintendent and won local awards.
“Along the way, Debbi grew her program exponentially and created a true newsroom in a school that had never dreamed of having such a thing before — but which now has a monitor at the school entrance proudly displaying their news site,” Bergen said. “And already, barely two whole years into her own journalism advising, Debbi is giving back. She enthusiastically mentors new advisers here in New York and advocates along with her students for more equitable, high-impact journalism opportunities for urban students.”
Founded in 1924, JEA supports free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational opportunities, promoting professionalism, encouraging and rewarding student excellence and teacher achievement, and an atmosphere which encompasses diversity yet builds unity. It is headquartered at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.
By Louisa Avery, MJE, awards chair