The MoCo Student is honored to announce our inaugural journalism contest, which works to uplift and spotlight the next generation of student journalists in Montgomery County.
Our judges for this contest are Zoe Bell and Jordan Young.
Zoe Bell is a senior reporter for Washington Jewish Week, where she’s in her third year covering local Jewish news, breaking news and news features in the D.C. metro area. She has received multiple awards for her reporting. Zoe graduated magna cum laude from American University with degrees in journalism and criminal justice, and served as the first DEI editor of AU’s student newspaper.
Jordan Young is a digital producer at NBC4 Washington, where her reporting mostly focuses on disability and health policy in the D.C. area. She’s previously held positions at the CNN Political Unit and The Village Green, a New Jersey local news website. Jordan first got her start in student media, serving as opinions editor on her high school newspaper, The Columbian, and as news managing editor on American University’s newspaper, The Eagle.
All submissions will be read through this entry form. Please submit here.
Applicant Eligibility:
Applicants must be residents of Montgomery County
Applicants must be 13-18 years of age
In addition to being published on the MoCo Student website, winners will also:
- Be featured on the MoCo Student Social Media
- Receive feedback and mentoring
- Have the opportunity to win cash prizes
The contest will close by TBD.
Please note that any applications written with the help of artificial intelligence will be automatically disqualified. We do not accept the usage of artificial intelligence software to generate articles or digital graphics.
Submission Rules:
Applicants are allowed to submit multiple entries.
Judges will only be reading entries that are submitted in this form.
All entries will either into one of the following: individual or team entry.
For team submissions, one person is responsible for submitting a team entry and providing information regarding their team members.
Please review the contest categories below and examples of what types of entries fall under each category.
Contest Categories
News:
- Foreign affairs
- Breaking news
- Local reporting
- Science, technology, and society reporting
Features:
- Profile writing
- Human-interest story
- Cultural commentary
- In-depth reporting
Opinion:
- Editorial
- Letter to the editor
- Reporting with a social justice angle
Review:
- Movies, books, food, and fashion reviews
Column Writing:
- Any article written in first-person
Photography:
- Photo Essays
Video:
- Broadcast news story
- Broadcast features story
- Broadcast sports story
Graphics:
- Digital art
- Graphic design
Audio:
- Podcast
Layout:
- Print design
- Yearbook design