Journalism Competitions

Yale Daily News Journalism Contest

All groups participating in the International High School Journalism Program are given the opportunity to enter the Journalism Competition. All entries must be in English, and to participate in the competition, you must select and submit 5 of the best articles from your online site. Yale Daily News journalists will assess the quality of the paper and choose the top three winners whose works best represent quality journalism. 

The following awards will be given for the best:

  1. News article

  2. Feature article or longform piece

  3. Opinion column

  4. Photo or Photo essay

  5. Sports article

  6. Culture article

SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest

This competition offers several different competitions for journalists, such as Aspiring Young Journalist, Journalist of the Year Scholarships, Student Journalist Impact Award, Scholastic Journalism Week poster contest, and more. With all of these different categories, every student journalist of all ages and interests can find a competition that suits them.

New York Times Summer Reading Contest

Every year since 2010, The Learning Network has invited teenagers around the world to add The New York Times to their summer reading lists. So far, more than 90,000 have done so.

If you are looking for ways to offer students more “voice and choice,” The New York Times offers an open-ended contest can help. Every week, they ask participants to choose something in The Times that has piqued their interest, and then tell write about why. At the end of the week, judges from the Times newsroom and The Learning Network pick their favorite responses and publish them.

You can read more about 2023’s 14th Annual Summer Reading Contest here.

NPPA Best of Photojournalism Competition

The Best of Photojournalism competition recognizes the ways in which photography is produced and it proudly honors the journalists who do it.

The competition is divided into six primary divisions.

Across these six divisions, there are nearly 100 categories entrants can participate in, ranging from breaking news and sports to the unique challenges of presidential election cycles and current cultural events. The final mediums – be it print, digital, or broadcast – are all recognized equally.

Santa Clara University Journalism Awards

Each year, the Journalism Program in the Communication Department at Santa Clara University and the Santa Clara, the university’s award-winning student newspaper, honor the best in high school journalism through the Santa Clara University Journalism Awards. Awards are presented in News, Features, and Sports categories and are judged by SCU journalism faculty and the editors at The Santa Clara. The contest is open to all high school students. Work that appears in a professional publication is not accepted.