Longtime WJEA member Sandra Coyer MJE, elected this February as the Director-at-Large of JEA Board Of Directors, is a force to be reckoned with. She is a familiar face in WJEA – she was president for two years, vice president, J-camp instructor and judge of the Emerald Awards- on top of her responsibilities of teaching yearbook, newspaper and the Broadcast media channel as director of student media at Puyallup High School. Last year, she won the Special Recognition Broadcast Award Adviser award through JEA. She is as comfortable leading her pack of new advisers at the WJEA Summer Camp on an ad ..read more

The 2024 Emerald Award and Critique service submissions are open. Washington state publications who are members of WJEA are eligible to submit their publication for the Emerald Award, which is the highest award presented by the state organization. Submissions for the Emerald Award only are $30. Emerald Awards are judged by a panel of professional journalists. No feedback is provided. Media programs looking to get comprehensive feedback from critique judges may submit their media to the critique service.  The cost of the critique is $40, which includes the automatic entry into the Emerald ..read more

Online Registration Form Fine tune your existing program or prepare to teach student media for the first time, guided by a team of Master journalism Educators in an inspirational setting. Refresh and recharge at this retreat for advisers of student media, where you can breathe the forest air and watch bald eagles glide over beautiful Dumas Bay in Washington State. August 5-7, 2024 $625 includes single room and all meals and materials. Starts at 10am on 8/5 and ends at 4 pm on 8/7. Transportation from/to SEA/TAC Airport available. Please register by June 15 for $625 rate. After June 15: $650 ..read more

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has issued a proclamation recognizing Feb. 19-23, 2024 as Scholastic Journalism Week in the state. The proclamation reads as follows: WHEREAS, scholastic journalism education organizations, like the national Journalism Education Association (JEA), founded in 1924, support student journalists and advisers in Washington and nationwide; and WHEREAS, scholastic journalism education supports free and responsible scholastic journalism by providing resources and educational opportunities, promoting professionalism, encouraging and rewarding student excellence and teacher ac ..read more

The Journalism Education Association recently announced that WJEA Executive Director Kathy Schrier, MJE, is one of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipients. The award recognizes “retirees for lifetime dedication to journalism education in the form of advising or other contributions to the profession,” according to the JEA website. Former WJEA President Sandra Coyer, MJE, nominated Schrier for the award. “It is not an understatement to say that WJEA would struggle to exist if Kathy wasn’t the executive director,” Coyer said in her nomination. “There is nobody I know who cares more for ..read more

Fern Valentine, JEA’s 2023 Carl Towley Award recipient, gave the following speech during the Adviser Awards Luncheon at the 2023 NHSJ Fall Convention in Boston on November 9. Learn more about Fern Valentine’s amazing career in scholastic journalism here. Receiving this award leaves me amazed and honored. When you are just a month away from turning 90, you consider yourself to be a has-been, and in many ways, I am. Since I have been retired for 30 years, journalism classes today are very different than mine were. When I first started advising, computers were not available, and my students certa ..read more

Arlington High School students have used WJEA as a CTSO for years. (A. Hayman) Journalism as CTE makes a ton of sense….employability, job focused, and just plain different from your standard academic class.  With CTE comes the requirement for a CTSO. That makes sense too–something that allows your students to compete and to have some leadership opportunities.     Unfortunately, there isn’t really a CTSO that caters to journalism.  If you are a CTE program, you have to “settle” for the competitions that don’t really address all the things your kids do, or you have to di ..read more

Mountlake Terrace High School was awarded the First Amendment Press Freedom Award at the JEA/NSPA Spring Conference opening ceremony April 20,2023 in San Francisco, CA. This marks the 13th time the school has earned the award; the 10th consecutive ..read more

The 2023 Emerald Award and Critique service submissions are open. Washington state publications who are members of WJEA are eligible to submit their publication for the Emerald Award, which is the highest award presented by the state organization. Submissions for the Emerald Award only are $30. Emerald Awards are judged by a panel of professional journalists. No feedback is provided. Media programs looking to get comprehensive feedback from critique judges may submit their media to the critique service.  The cost of the critique is $40, which includes the automatic entry into the Emerald ..read more

Join us for the WJEA Summer Journalism Workshop! July 25-28, 2023 • WSU Registration opens in February.   ..read more