Congratulations to our 2026 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Newspaper Contest Coordinator • April 27, 2026

Take a bow, Illinois high school journalists! This year our annual IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest received nearly 900 entries from a total of 30 schools. In recognition of the outstanding work that Illinois high school journalists produced from March 2025 to March 2026, we are proud to announce our 2026 winners. Check inside for the results!

University of Chicago Lab’s Light Dohrn wins 2026 Illinois Journalist of the Year

February 27, 2026

Congratulations to Light Dohrn, a senior from University of Chicago Laboratory High School in Chicago on being named the 2026 Illinois Journalist of the Year by the Illinois Journalism Education Association. ...

Congratulations to our 2025 Yearbook Contest winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Board Member • November 25, 2025

Thirty-five schools participated in this year's contest, which was for books covering the 2024-25 school year. Congratulations to all of our yearbook advisers and students! We are proud of the amazing work you did last year! Best of luck on your continuing coverage of the current school year. We can't wait to see the entries for 2025-26!

Meet the 2025 All-State Journalism Team – MVPs of their school publications!

Linda Jones, IJEA Executive Director and Dave Porreca, CJE • June 9, 2025

We are proud to announce the members of the 2025 IJEA All-State Journalism Team! The 19 students selected for the honor comprise our largest All-State Team in the program's 21-year history. The honorees were nominated by their advisers in recognition of the indispensable contributions they made to their publications during 2024-25.

Congratulations to our 2025 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Newspaper Contest Coordinator • April 20, 2025

Take a bow, Illinois high school journalists! This year our annual IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest received nearly 900 entries from almost 30 schools. In recognition of the outstanding work that Illinois high school journalists produced from March 2024 to March 2025, we are proud to announce our 2025 winners. Check inside for the results!

Congratulations to our 2024 Yearbook Contest winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Board Member • November 20, 2024

More than 30 schools participated in this year's contest, which was for books covering the 2023-24 school year. Congratulations to all of our yearbook advisers and students! We are proud of the amazing work you did last year! Best of luck on your continuing coverage of the current school year. We can't wait to see the entries for 2024-25!

UPDATE: Our 2024 Yearbook Contest deadline has passed. Good luck to your students!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Board Member • May 27, 2024

We want recognize the amazing work your students have done documenting the 2023-24 school year! Our 2024 Yearbook Contest is now open and will accept submissions through Oct. 15. Please note that this deadline is a month earlier than usual. By using this earlier deadline, we hope to have the results back to you by Thanksgiving!

Meet our 2024 All-State Journalism Team, MVPs of their school media!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Board Member • April 30, 2024

For the past 20 years, the IJEA All-State Journalism Team has recognized those students who have proven themselves indispensable to their respective school media. These are the student journalists who are the “MVPs” of their publications, dedicated and energetic team leaders whose main contributions often occur behind the scenes.

Congratulations to our 2024 Newspaper & Digital News winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Newspaper Contest Coordinator • April 28, 2024

Congratulations to all of our participating advisers and students! This year's competition received more than 1,000 entries from a total of 30 schools. The quality of entries was outstanding! Best of luck to everyone as you wrap up the school year. You make us proud to be associated with Illinois scholastic journalism!

Nominate your staff MVP for the IJEA’s All-State Journalism Team by April 5!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Board Member • March 29, 2024

[PLEASE NOTE: Our extended deadline has passed. Good luck to everyone who was nominated!] We've extended the All-State Journalism Team nomination deadline to 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 5! The IJEA All-State Team recognizes the MVPs of Illinois high school journalism staffs — those indispensable students who do much of their work behind the scenes.

Congratulations to our 2023 All-State Journalism Team!

Linda Jones, IJEA Executive Director and Dave Porreca, CJE • May 16, 2023

The IJEA is proud to announce the members of the 2023 All-State Journalism Team. The 12 students selected for this year's honor were nominated by their advisers in recognition of the indispensable contributions they made to their publications during 2022-23. Congratulations to these MVPs who rose to the occasion in yet another challenging year!

Congratulations to our 2023 Newspaper & Digital News winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Newspaper Contest Coordinator • May 14, 2023

Illinois high school journalists truly rose to the occasion during the 12 months covered by the 2023 IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest to document the post-pandemic return to in-person learning and extracurriculars throughout the state. Once again, these students made us proud to be associated with Illinois scholastic journalism!