Eastside is New Jersey’s winner of the Distinguished Journalism Award for the 13th consecutive year, and Eastside Online is the winner of the Online Distinguished Journalism Award for the 2nd straight year.

The Distinguished Journalism Award is based on the number of first place, second place, third place and honorable mention awards using a weighted system in which first is worth the most, second place the second most, etc.  The Online Distinguished Journalism Award is based on the same system but  different categories.

Eastside also won the Overall Excellence award, which is based on a rubric.

Eastside and Eastside Online won the following awards en route to the two biggest honors.  All material was published in print or online during the 2020-2021 school year:

Multimedia News Package:

FIRST PLACE:  “Tik-Tok Takeover” — Max Gaffin, Nicole Vital, Scout Pullano, Melissa Vital, Inesa Linker, and Alex Levine

THIRD PLACE:  “Exploring the holiday lights”  — Sami Bell, Isabella Levin, Vivian Rong, Yena Son, Melissa Vital, and Alexa Atlas

HONORABLE MENTION: “East Celebrates the Inauguration” — Jamie Bookbinder, Emily Boyle, and Max Gaffin

HONORABLE MENTION: “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg” — Remy Abrams, Alena Zhang, Amanda Merovitz, James Kwak, Jessica Levin, Ziva Davis, and Vivian Rong

Multimedia Features Package:

FIRST PLACE: “A deeper look into eating disorders” — Ziv Amsili, Alexa Atlas, Jacy Dickstein, Jeffrey Kaminer, Brielle Lampf, Isabella Levin, and Yena Son

SECOND PLACE:  “Self-love” —  Lalitha Viswanathan, Nicole Vital, Jacy Dickstein, Ziva Davis, Abby Yu, Melissa Vital, and Amanda Merovitz

HONORABLE MENTION:  “A closer look into social media” — Alexa Atlas, Ziva Davis, Nick Gangewere, Alex Levine, Scout Pullano, and Melissa Vital

Multimedia Sports Package:

FIRST PLACE:. “2020-2021 Top Athletes” —  Alexa Atlas, Nick Gangewere, and Nicole Vital

SECOND PLACE: “Fall Sports Recap” —  Alexa Atlas, Max Gaffin, Nick Gangewere, Lily Lazarus, and Alex Levine

Podcast:

THIRD PLACE:. “The Truth About…”  —  Gia Gupta, Karina Gupta, Heidi Kwak, and Jiwoo Lee

Breaking News:

THIRD PLACE: “Interview with SGA winner”  —  Aiden Rood

HONORABLE MENTION: “CHPS has a tentative plan” — Max Gaffin

HONORABLE MENTION: “Final exams will not return —  Aiden Rood

Breaking Sports:

SECOND PLACE: “East defeats Rancocas Valley”  —  Nick Gangewere

Online Photo Gallery:

HONORABLE MENTION: “East Girls Swim” —  Madeline Dold

Social Media Presence:

SECOND PLACE: Eastside Social Media

Feature Writing:

THIRD PLACE: “Steele brings artistic dreams into reality” — Lalitha Viswanathan

HONORABLE MENTION: “Rosenbaum spreads self-love on Tik-Tok” — Emily Boyle

HONORABLE MENTION: “Bryce Dershem beat the odds” — Aiden Rood

Sports Writing:

SECOND PLACE: “Lynell Payne’s Plan” — Nick Gangewere

HONORABLE MENTION: “For Freshman Phenom Lily Quintero, Basketball is More than Just a Game” — Nick Gangewere

In-Depth Reporting:

THIRD PLACE:  “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women’s History Month” — Nicole Vital, Ziv Amsili, Sami Bell, Avi Shohat, Melissa Vital, and Naomi Bereketab

HONORABLE MENTION: “A deeper look into eating disorders” — Ziv Amsili, Alexa Atlas, Jacy Dickstein, Jeffrey Kaminer, Brielle Lampf, Isabella Levin, and Yena Son

Editorial Writing:

SECOND PLACE: “Eastside commends district’s efforts during remote learning” — Eastside Editorial Board

THIRD PLACE: “Eastside names African American Culture Club Persons of the Year” — Eastside Editorial Board

Opinion Writing:

FIRST PLACE: “The US should allow statehood for Washington, DC” — Tomer Goldfinger

HONORABLE MENTION: “East should require African American History” — Naomi Bereketab

HONORABLE MENTION: “East students should have more time to pursue interests that they care about” — Brielle Lampf

Personal Narrative:

SECOND PLACE:  “My journey of discovering the beauty of my culture” — Alena Zhang,

Column Writing:

FIRST PLACE: “Politics Weekly” — Aiden Rood

Review Writing:

HONORABLE MENTION: “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” — James Kwak

Artwork/Illustrations:

FIRST PLACE:  Immigrants Package — James Kwak

HONORABLE MENTION: “Students celebrate holidays amidst pandemic” — Marc Celine Nicolas

Photography:

THIRD PLACE: “Setting sail” — Yena Son

Editorial Cartooning:

FIRST PLACE: “Health care workers risk their lives” — Melissa Vital

SECOND PLACE: “I’m Bored” — Jeffrey Kaminer

THIRD PLACE: “Giving cards as birthday presents” — Heidi Kwak

Layout & Design

FIRST PLACE: Senior Superlatives — Jeffrey Kaminer and Melissa Vital

SECOND PLACE: African American History — Brielle Lampf, Naomi Bereketab, and Vivian Rong

THIRD PLACE: June Sports Page 1 —  Max Gaffin, Lalitha Viswanathan, and Abby Yu