Illinois JEA

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!

York Community High School’s Kate Brody wins 2025 Illinois Journalist of the Year

Linda Jones, IJEA Executive Director, and Dave Porreca, IJEA Contest Committee Chair • March 31, 2025

Kate is IJEA’s 36th Journalist of the Year and the first from York Community High School! She has been an award-wining journalist at her school since her freshman year. The senior is co-editor-in-chief of the online news site This is York and the magazine York-hi. Kate will now compete for national honors against the top high school journalists from other states. Congrats, Kate!

Advisers, we’re adjusting fees for the IJEA Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest

Keith Carlson, CJE, IJEA President • February 1, 2025

So that we may continue to use the Better BNC platform as a submission and organizational tool for our annual Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest, the IJEA board recently voted to approve a modified fee structure for participating schools. The primary change is that after a school's first five entries, each entry will cost $5. We thank for understanding our efforts to be good stewards of our resources.

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.

Naperville Central’s Jake Pfeiffer wins 2024 Illinois Journalist of the Year

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Contest Committee Chair • February 26, 2024

Jake Peiffer, editor-in-chief of the Central Times, has been named the 2024 Illinois Journalist of the Year. Jake is IJEA’s 35th Journalist of the Year and just the second from Naperville Central High School. Jake will now compete for national honors against the top high school journalists from other states. Congrats, Jake!

UPDATE: Deadline for 2024 Newspaper & Digital News Media Contest extended to Friday, March 22

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Newspaper Contest Coordinator • February 25, 2024

In recognition of the time crunch that many of our members face at this time of the school year, we have extended by one week the deadline for submitting entries to the 2024 IJEA News & Digital News Media Contest. The deadline is now 10:59 p.m. Friday, March 22. Good luck to our members and their students!

Congratulations to our 2023 Yearbook Contest winners!

Dave Porreca, CJE, IJEA Yearbook Contest Co-Coordnator • January 10, 2024

Nearly 40 schools from throughout the state participated in this year's contest, which was for books covering the 2022-23 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 2023-24!