
By Erinn Harris, MJE, JEA awards chair
The Journalism Education Association has named Aaron Manfull, MJE, media adviser at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, Missouri, as its 2023 Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award recipient.
This award recognizes a teacher who, through the teaching and/or advising of journalism, inspired others to pursue journalism teaching as a career and who has made a positive difference in the teaching community.
Manfull will be formally recognized July 10-13 at the JEA Advisers Institute in Washington, D.C.
Room 26. It’s just a classroom. In a high school. There are kids. There are computers. There’s a teacher.
But in Room 26, it’s not just any teacher. It’s a teacher who has not only inspired his own students, but students from around the country — and their advisers.
Room 26 is where Aaron Manfull has inspired legions of students, many of whom have followed in his footsteps, becoming advisers themselves.
“I first met Aaron when I was 15 years old,” Sarah Kirksey, MJE, said. “It was my sophomore year, and I found myself randomly placed in his photography class in Room 26. If I could go back and hug the counselor who set that up, I would in a heartbeat. That decision literally changed the trajectory of my life. While photography quickly became a new passion for me, the greater gift was access into the world of scholastic journalism and a newfound home for the rest of my high school career.”
Kirksey, now an adviser herself at Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis, shares these sentiments (and memories of Room 26) with another former student, Jordyn Kiel, MJE.

“Walking into Room 26 at Francis Howell North High School as a freshman in 2005, I knew instantly that it was a place that had the potential to be a home away from home — a place full of students ready to learn, ready to lead and ready to be a team,” Kiel, who now advises at Francis Howell North said. “Fast forward to 2022, and I’ve been working to replicate that feeling for hundreds of my own students in the same building, working alongside [Manfull], for almost 10 years. My career as a journalism educator brings me the greatest joy and pride, and I fully believe that I owe so much of who I am and aspire to be as a journalism educator to Manfull.”
Even if they are not currently advising, his former students attribute their success as professional educator’s to Manfull’s guidance and inspiration.
“To say that Aaron Manfull inspired me feels insubstantial — without his program and mentorship, I wouldn’t be the man I’ve become, nor would I have the rewarding career as a teacher that has been my greatest source of pride in life,” former student Jake Chiarelli said. “As a beginning teacher, I felt comforted in having what I consider to be an irreproachable model for my classroom — the room that we lovingly referred to as 026 (now the Pub Hub), at Francis Howell North.”
Not everyone will have the opportunity to spend time in Room 26, but Manfull invites all of his advising network into his “office” every Monday for his “Monday Morning from the Journalism Teacher’s Desk” on Facebook. Covering topics from staff sizes and simplifying systems to lessons to lessons from virtual teaching to alumni scholarships, teachers can tune in every Monday for their weekly dose of Manfull’s inspiration.
You can find him on Facebook. And yes, you can find him in Room 26. But the places you’ll find Manfull most often are in the teaching, philosophies and practices of those that have followed in his footsteps.
“Manfull believed in me, he believed in the power of journalism and is the reason I did and still find myself immersed in the unique challenges and pure joy of scholastic journalism,” Kiel said. “He’s the reason I feel so dedicated to making my kids in Room 105 feel the way I did in Room 26 all those years ago.”
Lindsay Porter