Bridgeland High School senior Haylie Stum represents Texas as its 2023 Journalist of the Year and will compete for the national JOY title in the Journalism Education Association contest.
The Texas Association of Journalism Educators’ JOY judges reviewed 12 portfolios from applicants from across the state in late February. Judges chose Stum to represent scholastic journalism in Texas based on her creative and well-rounded portfolio presentation.
“Haylie Stum is a storyteller who feels heard when she has a microphone in her hand,” one of the judges said. “She demonstrates strengths in all areas — interviewing, writing, broadcasting live during sporting events, shooting game videos and photographs, posting highlights to social media and editing.”
In addition to being the first female sports editor at Bridgeland, Haylie has bylines in the Houston Chronicle and vype.com. In a little over a year as a social media reporter, Haylie has acquired millions of impressions and hundreds of thousands of engagements on Twitter. Her work demonstrates proficiency at personal and staff branding.
Haylie also caught the eye of ABC13 Houston’s Joe Gleason.
“Haylie has set a new standard for student reporting,” Gleason said. “She shoots her own game video, posts highlights to social media, does interviews and reports — giving a firsthand account on what is going on at the game she is covering and doing it all by herself. It’s very difficult to be a one-person crew, but she does it with grace and ease. I admire her work ethic.”
Haylie is more than an editor – she is a teacher. When digital editing, she offers solid, journalistically sound constructive criticism to assist staff members in writing their stories. First-year staff member Lamiya Antaria said that whenever she is experiencing writer’s block, she always goes to talk to Haylie.
“I’m sure that instead of just throwing out ideas, she will talk me through them and help me create new ones,” Antaria said.
Portfolios were judged by a panel of three former journalism educators who analyzed applicants on 11 categories including leadership, writing, reporting and visual communication using the rubric established by JEA.
As the Texas winner, Stum will receive the $1,500 Bill Taylor Memorial Scholarship. Stum will represent Texas in the JEA national JOY competition and will be recognized at the JEA/NSPA National Spring Journalism Convention April 20-22 in San Francisco, where the national winner will be named.
The judges also awarded first runner-up to Reagan Netherland from Ray Braswell High School, second runner-up to Natalie Cullen from James Bowie High School and third runner-up to Zoey Wilcox from Rock Hill High School.