Hawaii Baptist Academy high school students erupted in cheers Wednesday as their winning streak continued for the fourth year at the annual Hawaii High School Journalism Awards.

About half of the private school’s 16 students who attended the event at the Pagoda Hotel were first-timers at the statewide contest, where their school took home the overall best-in-state award, along with 13 first-place awards in different categories. The academy beat eight public schools and five other private schools for the top title.

Hawaii Baptist Academy student Kaycee Nakashima, 15, said this was her second year participating in the contest and she enjoyed working throughout the year with her peers to create pieces for the contest categories.

“We all say that as long as we tried our best and had fun — that’s the main thing. But it’s still really good to win again,” said Naka­shima, who wants to pursue a career in broadcast journalism.

Eunice Sim, faculty adviser for the academy’s newspaper, the Eagle Eye, said it was an honor to be recognized.

“They’re using their gifts to the fullest and that makes me really happy,” she said.

Sim said the school newspaper is part of a news production elective course that covers social media, photojournalism and newswriting.

“I see a lot of these kids just put their heart and their time and effort into doing work for our class and you know it’s not for the grade,” Sim said. “I think as a teacher, that’s a very satisfying thing to see — in the end of the day, you want them to do what they love and do what they do well.”

Contest entries were judged in 20 categories including newswriting, photo essay, editorial cartoon, video, blog and social media.

Public and private school entries were judged separately to determine a public and private school winner in each category. From there, judges selected an overall winner for each category. Three schools were then ranked as having the best-in-state journalism program based on total awards.

The overall second-place winner was Sacred Hearts Academy, which also swept up 14 first-place awards. The overall third-place winner was Mililani High School, which also won six first-place awards. Prizes included plaques, certificates and cash awards.

The sponsors for the contest included the Hawaii Publishers Association, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Midweek, Honolulu Civil Beat, Nella Media Group, Honolulu Publishing and Clarity Printing.

TOP AWARD WINNERS