The Spotlight newspaper, the official newspaper of Ben Davis, earned three first place and six overall awards from Youth Journalism International in results released this past weekend.

Spotlight earned first place in team reporting for an issue it did in December covering the effects technology has had on education. The issue was called “Then & Now.” It was the fourth time in the past eight years that Spotlight has won this prestigious award.

“All the articles were well written, engaging and included fantastic, candid interviews,” the judges said of this issue.

Spotlight also earned honorable mention in the team reporting category with an issue it produced last April called “Scandals, conspiracies, controversies – who done it?”

Ben Davis senior Brooklynn Sharp also won first place in sports feature for a story she wrote titled “The Art of the Rebound.” Seniors Mary Oswigo and Jeffrey Dreyer won honorable mention in sports feature for a page they produced about the seniors on our girls and boys basketball teams called “Growing up…on the courts.”

Ben Davis graduate Jordyn Jones won first place in first person essay for a story she wrote titled “The Black Woman is the Angriest Person in America.”

Senior Emilia Miller was awarded second place in illustrations for a drawing she produced for the conspiracy issue.

The Youth Journalism awards are based on a calendar year with the awards this year for material published between Jan. 1 2022 and Dec. 31, 2022.

These awards come one week after student publication staffers earned 21 awards in the annual competition at Ball State University’s J-Day.