Together, let’s inspire the storytellers of tomorrow.
Giving Tuesday is Dec. 2! People can show their generosity in a variety of ways. Whether it’s helping a neighbor, advocating for an issue, sharing a skill or giving to causes, everyone has something to give and every act of generosity counts. Over the next few days, we will highlight stories from our programs that demonstrate how JEA has uplifted and inspired our community this year.
Broadcast Adviser of the Year — Omar Delgado
When Delgado took over the program, CCNN Live was just an idea. Now the school offers multiple levels of broadcast and digital media courses, all of which provide academic credit. Students are involved in every aspect of production — from anchoring and reporting to editing, social media and live event coverage.
When Delgado took over the program, CCNN Live was just an idea. Now the school offers multiple levels of broadcast and digital media courses, all of which provide academic credit. Students are involved in every aspect of production — from anchoring and reporting to editing, social media and live event coverage.
Omar Delgado of Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, Florida, is JEA’s 2025 Broadcast Adviser of the Year. Representatives from JEA’s Awards Committee and other supporters surprised Delgado with the award at Columbus Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. The Broadcast Adviser of the Year program honors outstanding secondary school advisers and their exemplary work from the previous year, as well as throughout their careers. Read Omar Delgados’s full story here.
JEA Partner Project — Waterloo West High School
This year, we traveled to Waterloo West High School in Waterloo, Iowa, Feb. 13-15, 2025. On the first day of the three-day workshop, adviser Kyle Carter, CJE, from Richland High School in Essex, Missouri, taught photojournalists photography basics. Students practiced by photographing team-building exercises and portraits during the day, then put their learning into action by photographing a high school bowling match that afternoon.
On the second day of Partner Project at Waterloo West High School in Waterloo, Iowa, the students put their new learning into practice by capturing video during an interview with the communications team from a local healthcare business. Margie Raper, MJE, former media adviser at Rock Hill High School, who now works at Jostens, and JEA’s national 2024 Broadcast Adviser of the Year, helps guide students to experiment with integrating video content into their social media coverage of events.
Our Partner Project wrapped up at Waterloo West High School, where student journalists braved a snowstorm for a final critique and strategy session. Over three days, they honed their photography, reporting and design skills — culminating in a student-led press conference with the superintendent. Learn more about JEA’s Partner Project here.
Student Journalist of the Year — Alan Tai
Tai is co-editor of the “El Estoque” newsmagazine at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California. The honor includes a $4,000 scholarship, which he will use at Northwestern University, where he plans to study data science and hopefully continue his work in journalism and communications.
“Growing up with an autistic brother, I know what it’s like to feel unheard. I know the frustration of struggling to communicate, of having things to say but being unable to say them,” Tai wrote. “I’ve considered the human element of every story I write. I report on the stories of newly arrived immigrants and longtime residents watching their community change beyond recognition. I research the palpable impacts of policies in my editorials to analyze their effects on individual livelihoods, finding the people behind every statistic.”
Beyond journalism, Tai is a straight-A student, a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, a champion debater and a caretaker to his brother Jeremy, who is autistic. That last trait has been one of his most defining. Read Alan Tai’s full story here.
Carl Towley — Mary Kay Downes, MJE
Mary Kay Downes, MJE, is the 2025 Carl Towley Award recipient. JEA honored Downes during the Fall JEA/NSPA National HIgh School Journalism Convention at the advisers’ luncheon in Nashville, Tennessee Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. This award is presented to a JEA member whose work is unusually beneficial and of superior value to the national JEA and to scholastic journalism.
Armed with a master’s degree in English from Duquesne University, Downes began her career in Montgomery Public Schools in 1965. By 1987, she made her way to Chantilly High School, where she taught English and advised the yearbook for 34 years. Over the course of those 34 years, she has worn many hats — adviser, department chair, field trip organizer, storyteller, committee member, mentor. Downes has done it all.
“In a lot of ways, Mary Kay really is the queen when it comes to the yearbook world,” said Mark Murray, Executive Director of the Association of Texas Photography Instructors. “She has been quietly – okay, not so quietly – offering her advice to us for so many years that sometimes I think we take her for granted. But there is a reason that her staffs loved her through all those Crown and Pacemaker honors. And there is a reason that we all love her, too. We know she cares about us and about our lives and she, together with her John Deere snowblower husband, Linus, who accompanies her just about everywhere, is one of the best people I know.” Read Mary Kay Downes’, MJE, full story here.
A huge thank you to our advisers, students and donors for making this year unforgettable.
In 2024, JEA was able to fundraise $596 from individual contributors to support student journalists and their advisers! This year, we hope to fundraise $4,000 to cover the cost of a Journalist of the Year scholarship, awarded to one deserving student. Despite fundraising fluctuating over the years, we can do more! Together, let’s inspire the storytellers of tomorrow.
You can make a difference for other schools like Waterloo West High School, uplift other students like Alan Tai and inspire advisers like Mary Kay Downes, MJE, and Omar Delgado. As we celebrate this season of giving and GivingTuesday, we hope you will consider supporting journalism education and JEA with a donation.
Don’t wait, act now and
MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY!
