By Nicole Genova
Reporter

The Warrior staff won three awards at the annual Quill Awards at Adelphi University’s Press Day, March 14. In a field of over 30 top newspapers from across Long Island and New York City, Editor-in-Chief Kiera Fitzpatrick was the sole Gold winner in the category of Most Outstanding News Article. For the second year in a row Fitzpatrick was recognized as one of the Most Outstanding Reporters, with a bronze. Co-Editor-in-Chief Katie Piscopio also won in the category of Best Entertainment Review, an honorable mention.

Ten Wantagh journalism students traveled to Garden City for Press Day. The day began with breakfast followed quickly by informative seminars. The board of speakers conducted these sessions along with two students from local schools’ newspaper staffs. They discussed different controversial issues with school papers. After the seminar, students remained seated and were allowed to go to the microphone with any questions or topics they wanted to touch upon. Many newspaper staffs have faced problems with getting their articles published because they may not be “appropriate” enough. One student said he was unable to publish an article on handball because the principle claimed it would encourage students to cut class. It shows how much freedom our newspaper here in Wantagh has. After the seminars, we then separated into smaller groups to give the more shy people an opportunity to bring up any topics. The mentors who spoke on the board earlier were in charge of these small groups. They were very helpful and had great ideas for the different papers.

Kiera Fitzpatrick became the first Wantagh journalist to win any award in the most prestigious writing category in the contest. Journalism Advisor Mr. Kravitz has entered students writing for 10 years in this contest. “Going back to 2001 we’ve entered the Most Outstanding News Article category every year with one of our best writers at this contest,” said Mr. Kravitz who has advised The Warrior for the past 20 years and whose students have won over 150 awards for writing in various high school newspaper contests. “We had never won a single award in this category, the most prestigious writing category in the contest. So, for Kiera to win Gold, and beat out some incredible writers, was a spectacular achievement.”

“We were nearing the end of the awards and there were two awards left: Best News Article and Most Outstanding Reporter,” said Fitzpatrick. “For the second straight year, Mr. Kravitz didn’t tell me if I was entered in either of the categories. Silver was called for Best News Story, and I felt an overwhelming amount of disappointment, thinking that I wouldn’t win Gold. Then my name was called and I instantaneously began to shake. I walked up there and sat down in my seat. What seemed like seconds passed, and I heard my name called again for Most Outstanding Reporter. The announcer whispered to me and informed me that I was the only student to win this award twice. I couldn’t stop shaking, and I just felt immensely proud for achieving such prestigious awards for doing something I love.”