Rebecca Wu of Henry M Gunn High School in Palo Alto took First Place in the NorCal Media Week Lede Contest and won $100, and four students earning Honorable Mentions each won $50 for their respective programs.

Honorable mentions are Sarah Mohammed of the Harker School in San Jose, Tiffany Chang of the Harker School in San Jose, Devin Gupta and Jisha Rajala of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, and Chloe Docto of Granite Bay High School in Sacramento.

Participants submitted their best ledes published either in print or online during NorCal Media Week, Oct. 2 through Oct. 9, 2021. Entries must have come from students of JEANC adviser members.

Watch this space for a video critique, which should be online by the weekend. More information about the contest is available here. Winning ledes are reprinted below and are linked to the stories in which they appear.

First Place: Rebecca Wu “Gunn Oracle” Henry M. Gunn High School, Palo Alto
It has been about a month since the “devious licks” TikTok trend emerged in early September, and although Internet trends usually fade as quickly as they surface, students are still vandalizing school property. Spraying graffiti on the bathroom walls, stealing pencil sharpeners and shattering mirrors have all been widespread acts on campus connected to the trend.

Honorable Mention: Devin Gupta & Jisha Rajala “El Estoque” Monta Vista High School, Cupertino
Although COVID-19 has caused a national decrease in the population of babies, FUHSD has recently seen an increase in the number of faculty members taking maternity and paternity leave. In the past year, approximately 11 teachers have taken time off related to having children, compared to six from the 2020-21 school year during August.

Honorable Mention: Sarah Mohammed “Harker Aquilla” The Harker School, San Jose
Thumbing a photograph from 2000, new upper school journalism teacher and Harker alumna Whitney Huang (‘08) laughs with upper school activities director Kerry Enzensperger, recalling fondly each of their young faces when they had posed outside of Dobbins for that group picture over two decades ago.

Honorable Mention: Tiffany Chang “Harker Aquilla” The Harker School, San Jose
As he entered the final miles of the race, a single thought ran through Rupert Chen (11)’s head: how much of the race was left?

Though every aspect of training for and running the marathon required extreme physical and mental prowess, the home stretch proved especially challenging. Exhaustion and burnout began to kick in—and with it, doubt. The finish line was within reach, perhaps even within sight, yet, to Rupert, it felt so distant. In the face of both physical setbacks and mental blocks, Rupert powered through, blazing across the finish line with a time of 3:26:14.

Honorable Mention: Chloe Docto “Granite Bay Today” Granite Bay High School, Granite Bay
With a swelling belly in hand, pop-rap artist Lil Nas X proclaimed that he was ‘expecting’. 

This page was revised at 11:07 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2021 as the wrong winner was listed. We regret the error.