On April 17, 2025, the Hawaii High School Journalism Awards ceremony was held at the University of Hawaii Manoa, where three Kalani High School newswriters, Isabella George (11), Russet Sounthala (11), and Olivia Kulaga (12), placed and/or won an award.
George won the Most Valuable Staffer award and placed second in the Portrait category for her portrait, “Phan wins 2nd at Honolulu District Science Fair.” She said she was “surprised” to have won anything but expressed gratitude.
“I didn’t think much of my infographic, but I was really excited,” George says. “This is my first time winning. I’ve been doing news writing for a few years, so it felt really good.”
Sounthala placed 2nd in the cartoon category for her editorial comic, “The government must respect the way I raise my keiki” and is also surprised and grateful to hear about his placement.
“I was shocked because I didn’t even know that my cartoon was submitted into the contest, but I’m very grateful,” Sounthala says. “I [also] was excited because again; I had no idea and I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think I’d win anything.’ That’s really cool.”
Kulaga placed 3rd in the infographic category for her infographic, “Are AP classes right for you?” She shares that she is proud to represent Kalani at the awards ceremony.
“My initial reaction to winning something at the journalism award ceremony was I was shocked because I went into it thinking I wouldn’t get anything and I would just be there to support Kalani,” Kulaga says. “So I was very proud of myself to actually get an award.”
George has high hopes for herself, coming into next year. She shares that she prefers that she wins an award for her writing, rather than her photography.
“I expect to actually get an award for an essay or an article rather than a portrait,” George says. “[However,] I am proud of my photo.”
Sounthala shares that he may be leaving Kalani’s newswriting team next year, because he “wasn’t aware” that Kalani would be placing at the awards ceremony, let alone thrice.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be in newswriting next year,” Sounthala says. “I really want to, but my schedule might be full. But [now that] I’m aware that things are getting [submitted] into awards and stuff, I will try harder and hopefully win more stuff.”
Kulaga expresses a positive outlook on Kalani’s future newswriters, and that because of Kalani’s newswriting program rebirth, more solid articles are bound to be published.
“I think that Kalani’s newswriting program is definitely going to do a lot better next year,” Kulaga says. “We are rebuilding and there’s going to be a lot of strong articles next year.”
