Last Wednesday, HBA won the Best-in-State in the 53rd Annual Hawaii High School Journalism Awards — for the seventh year in a row.

HBA’s Eagle Eye team gathered together in a socially-distanced lunch to watch the awards ceremony virtually, waiting with anticipation until HBA was declared the overall winner over 11 other schools, both private and public. Mid-Pacific and Mililani High School took second and third place respectively.

Out of four categories — writing, photography, design/layout, and online — HBA was first in photography and design/layout and second in both writing and online. Individual Best-in-State awards won by HBA are as follows:

This year’s contest is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and the Journalism Program at the School of Communications at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. HBA was also awarded prize money for the wins: $200 (from Honolulu Star-Advertiser) for the Best-in-State title; $200 (from Hawaii Publishers Association) for the Photo division title; and $200 (from Trade Media Hui)) for the Design division title.