LPS students capture Cornhusker Awards for quality journalism

December 3, 2025

Lincoln Public Schools students received positive recognition this fall for producing premier-level words, photos and graphics in their newspapers and yearbooks.
 
Southeast High School and Southwest High School journalists earned prestigious Cornhusker Awards at the Nebraska High School Press Association (NHSPA) Fall Convention. Staff members of Southeast’s newspaper and Southwest’s yearbook claimed the award for their work during the 2024-25 school year. Students, advisors and professional journalists from across the state applauded their efforts at the annual conference.
 
NHSPA Executive Director Leslie Klein said the Knights and Silver Hawks could feel good about their state-level accomplishments. The Cornhusker Award is the top honor that high school newspaper, yearbook, broadcast and digital media newsrooms can receive each year in Nebraska.
 
“It is important to recognize quality journalism with awards like the Cornhuskers,” Klein said. “Awards have the power to legitimize programs by highlighting the good work being done in journalism classrooms while also affirming and empowering young reporters to continue engaging with journalism.”
 
Members of Southwest’s yearbook The Talon earned the award for the sixth time in the past seven years. Judges felt the Silver Hawks produced a high-quality publication that featured a wide variety of photos and stories. Staff members created a main theme for the yearbook, collected content for each page and spent hundreds of hours arranging information for readers to enjoy.

 
First-year advisor Delani Young said she was proud to watch the Silver Hawks win their fourth straight Cornhusker. Eleven students beamed as they posed with the wooden trophy at the state convention.
 
“It is encouraging for students to have earned a Cornhusker Award because it shows how impactful their hard work is on the quality of their product,” Young said. “The yearbook is a huge project that holds a lot of significance for their peers, so being recognized for excellence in this project is inspirational for years to come.”
 
Members of Southeast’s newspaper The Clarion pocketed a Cornhusker for the third time in the past four years. Co-editors Myla and Lily said they were pleased to hear the school’s name called at the awards ceremony. The Clarion was one of only three newspapers to receive the honor.
 
“It was really exciting, because there were only three schools that got a Cornhusker this year, and last year there were eight or ten,” Lily said. “You have to meet a lot of requirements to get this award, so it’s really special for our team to see all of our hard work pay off.”
 
“I wasn’t necessarily surprised, because I knew we had gotten it last year and our team does really high-quality writing,” Myla said. “I was definitely excited to hear that we had won it.”

 
Fellow staff members Mary and Lydia said the entire team was pleased to return home with the award. Mary is The Clarion’s photo editor and Lydia is one of the paper’s copy editors.
 
“It was awesome, especially because there were eight or ten schools that won the newspaper award last year, but this year there were only three schools, and we were one of them,” Mary said. “It was really cool. I think it’s something we should really be proud of.”
 
“I knew we had a good newspaper here, but I didn’t realize how good we are compared to other schools in Nebraska,” Lydia said. “It was really cool to see that we were recognized for our hard work.”
 
Judges reviewed three issues of The Clarion from the past year for the contest. They examined the quality level of the stories and photos and how staff members incorporated pictures and graphics into each issue.
 
Lily and Mary both credited journalism teacher Brianne Clark for guiding the Knights in class. Many students on The Clarion’s 2024-25 roster joined the newspaper for the first time last year. Clark taught them the foundations of journalism and worked with them on their story, photo and layout design ideas.

 
“Ms. Clark is always pushing us to do our best,” Lily said. “We do a lot of editing and revising and making sure everything is perfect. Our website looks good and our newspaper looks good, so I think we put a lot of time in.”
 
“Ms. Clark really enables all of this to happen,” Mary said. “I think the reason why our newspaper is so good is because of her. I feel like she shapes our potential.”
 
Lydia said the Cornhusker Award is a byproduct of the positive environment that exists in The Clarion’s newsroom. She said she has made many new friends during her time at the paper. Students from all four grade levels learn teamwork, communication and time management skills every time they produce an issue.
 
“I feel like we’re pretty close-knit in that way,” Lydia said. “We all share those experiences of going through the same process every month, and it’s kind of cool to share that experience. It’s a good way to connect with other people.”

 
Lydia said her newspaper role has also given her personal confidence and joy.
 
“I really love editing,” Lydia said. “It’s satisfying for me to fix things and make things flow. I really enjoy that and I like helping people, so that’s rewarding for me.”
 
Mary said working at The Clarion has also opened new career pathways for her. She and other staff members toured the Daily Nebraskan newsroom at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln during the state convention. She said that made her realize that there are many premier-level possibilities for her future.
 
“I’m probably going to go to UNL, and that got me thinking about if I would want to do the Daily Nebraskan,” Mary said. “I feel like The Clarion has impacted my life in a really good way, and it’s gotten me thinking about what I want to do in college. I don’t know what I want to do yet, but being a journalist is definitely on the radar now.”
 
Journalism and Yearbook are two offerings provided within our secondary English Language Arts curriculum. To learn more about English Language Arts at Lincoln Public Schools, visit our website at home.lps.org/english.
 
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