Schenectady High School students win 10 awards
in Gazette competition

Schenectady High School students recently won 10 awards in the annual Student Gazette journalism competition.

Alex Beverly and Maryam Shahani won two of the three top writing prizes in the high school division of the competition. Beverly won first place in the 10-12^th grade Sports writing category for his story on the economic benefits of steroids for professional athletes.  

Shahani led a sweep of the Opinion category, winning first place in the 10-12^th grade division for her story on the stereotyping of Muslims. Monet Thompson won second place in the category and Nikki Griesemer won third place. Rea Armstrong and Liniha Morton won Honorable Mentions in the Opinion category.

In the Sports category, Jennifer Balram won second place and Cody Shepard earned an Honorable Mention. 

In the News/Features category, Shepard took third place and Haley Elston won an Honorable Mention. 

The Gazette Newspapers has sponsored the annual competition for the last 11 years, offering awards to winning selections in the categories of News/Feature writing, Opinion writing, Sports writing, Comics, Photography and Create-an-Ad. Submissions are judged by Gazette editors, writers and other staffers in three age divisions: 3-6^th grade, 7-9^th grade, and 10-12^th grade. 

All first place winners in each age division receive $100, second place winners get $50 and third place winners get $25. The awards were handed out in a ceremony at the Gazette offices. 

Winning entries were published in a special insert inside the Daily Gazette editions on Friday, May 14.