This past weekend UIL Journalism announced winners of the annual state competitions for scholastic journalism at the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC) held at the University of Texas. Carroll’s Dragon Media program was awarded with individual achievement awards, top-level critiques and Star Awards in yearbook, broadcast and online news. Additionally, senior Pragnya Kaginele was named Online News Editor of the Year runner-up during the awards ceremony.
Carroll Senior High and High School journalism students involved in Dragon Media’s broadcast and publications brought home the association’s highest rating for both the KDGN broadcast and “The Dragon” Yearbook in this year’s competition, the Award of Distinguished Merit. In addition, the 2024 yearbook was the recipient of the Bronze Star award and KDGN the Silver Star. The prestigious Gold, Silver and Bronze Star award winners represent the top 10 percent of student publications in Texas and are incredibly competitive. This year there were only nine broadcast Stars issued in the entire state.
In addition, the program brought home 13 Individual Achievement Awards. For these awards students may submit entries ranging from news writing to sports photography, video segments and anchoring to yearbook theme development. The competition is fierce, with more than 5,000 entires submitted and only six chosen for each category. The champions represent the nation’s finest scholastic journalism. First place awards were granted in Yearbook Student-Life Focused Spread (Ashley Carcara ‘24) and Online News Video Story (Dylan Spiegelman ‘25). Second place awards were won for Yearbook Blended Coverage Spread (Yasmina Kantar ’24 and Fabiha Oyshi ‘25) and third place awards for Yearbook Club Spread (Rue Hames ‘25) and Online News Feature (Katherine Morosova ‘25). Honorable Mentions were given to Yearbook Headlines (Morgan Brown ‘24), Yearbook Index Spread (Morgan Brown ‘24), Yearbook Sports Spread (Yasmina Kantar ‘24), Online News Sports Feature Story (Ava Cottingham ‘25), Broadcast Anchor Team (Nick Ferrara and Miriam Etheredge ‘25), Broadcast Intro (Kathir Dev ‘27), Broadcast Daily Announcements (Nick Ferrara and Miriam Etheredge ‘25), and Broadcast Individual On-Air Talent (Ben Randall ‘26).
Tops in Texas awards were granted for Yearbook Student Life-Focused Spread and Online News Video Story. To win a Tops in Texas award, a student journalist or group of student journalists must first win a first-place award in their UIL classification and are then put up against all other classification winners, so all of the Tops in Texas award winners essentially won first place twice.
Finally, Pragnya Kaginele, who is a four-year member of the Dragon Media program and the current State Champion News Writer in UIL Academics, was awarded as Online News Editor of the Year runner-up. For this honor, Kaginele had to submit a portfolio of her work along with letters of recommendation following the nomination by her adviser. It was a great weekend in Austin for Dragon Media!
“The Dragon” yearbook is a completely student-run, 450+ page publication advised by CSHS teacher and Dragon Media adviser, Mrs. Natalie Brown. The 2024 book was edited by Morgan Brown, a 2024 Carroll graduate and the 2025 book is edited by senior Sarika Ramesh. The online news site “The Dragon Tribune” (dragonmedia.org) is edited by senior Pragnya Kaginele and advised by Brown. KDGN is advised by Mrs. Lindsey Jacobson and senior Dylan Spiegelman serves as executive producer.
