Congratulations to Kate Brody, a senior at York Community High School in Elmhurst, on being named the 2025 Illinois Journalist of the Year by the Illinois Journalism Education Association. A website featuring Kate’s portfolio of work and other supporting material is available here.
Kate is IJEA’s 36th Journalist of the Year since 1989 and the first York Community student to be named the state’s top high school journalist. She serves as one of two editors-in-chief of her school’s online publication, This is York, and print magazine, York-hi.
“Whether I’m photographing an event, filming a news package, writing a story, or designing a page, my goal has always been to tell stories in authentic and purposeful ways,” Kate wrote as part of her application.
Concerning her role as a leader, she commented: “Leadership should be dynamic in that it changes from group to group. As my role changes, so too does my leadership style.I think the most impactful leadership quality I have maintained, regardless of the situation, is my devotion to leading by example. I emulate this through my effective communication with all staff members and promoting team building initiatives.
“I consistently seek opportunities to write stories and work in the lab for hours after school. Just as people don’t want to work towards something they aren’t passionate about, people don’t want to be led by someone who isn’t passionate about all aspects of what they are doing.”
Advised by Kaitlyn Metzler and Payton Froats, Kate was selected from a field of 10 applicants for the IJOY award. A panel of IJEA board members chose Kate based on her portfolio, self-analytical essays, résumé, transcripts and letters of recommendations.
The award, the highest individual student honor given each year by IJEA, comes with a $300 scholarship. Kate will now be the Illinois entry in the national Journalism Education Association’s Journalist of the Year contest.
JEA winners will be announced at the spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention, which will be held April 24-26 in Seattle. The top winner at the national level receives $4,000 in scholarship funds, and up to five finalists receive $1,200 each.
Runners-up for the IJOY award were:
• Taariq Ahmed, news editor for U-High Midway newspaper and uhighmidway.com at University of Chicago Laboratory High School, advised by Logan Aimone
• Sami McKenney, editor-in-chief of Tiger Times Online news website and The Claw quarterly print magazine at Edwardsville High School, advised by Amanda Thrun
The IJOY winner and the two runners-up and their advisers will be honored June 7 at IJEA’s All-State/IJOY celebration in Springfield.
This year’s competition saw the largest number of applicants in recent memory. Thank you to everyone who competed, and good luck to Kate at the national competition!
