MFS Student Wins State High School Journalism Award

MOORESTOWN, NJ - A Moorestown Friends School student from Cherry Hill has been named the New Jersey High School Journalist of the Year by the Garden State Scholastic Press Association (GSSPA), the school announced.

Andrew Rowan, a senior at the school, was honored at the New Jersey Press Association’s April 11 Spring Awards Celebration held in Hamilton. Rowan is now in contention to be named the National High School Journalist of the Year.

Rowan is also the recipient of the $5,000 Bernard Kilgore Memorial Scholarship.Kilgore was the Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal from 1941 to 1965 and head of the Dow Jones company. This annual scholarship recipient and award winner is selected by a panel of New Jersey newspaper editors.

Rowan has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Wordsworth, the student-run news organization which disseminates news on multiple platforms, including print, digital, video, and social media, for two years.

“Andrew has been unequivocally dedicated to reporting and sharing the news of our MFS community since the first day I met him,” Diana Day, Academic Technology Coordinator, Portal Content Director, and Wordsworth Co-Advisor, said. “In addition to his boundless curiosity and his strengths as a journalist, another remarkable thing about Andrew is that he is a leader with a big heart. He encourages and guides the younger WordsWorth staffers so they have a chance to shine, too.”

After beginning as a staff writer his freshman year, Rowan served as Wordsworth’s Multimedia Editor and Executive Producer of its Fox Tracks news broadcast during his sophomore year.

“Journalism has to adapt and pages with just text don’t resonate anymore,” Rowan said. “When you have images and interactive tools, people are willing to spend more time looking at your content.”

He has used a studio that opened his freshman year to build up his experience developing video content.

“The creation of the broadcast studio in Van Meter Hall gave us a great opportunity to experience news production,” Rowan said. “We learned about lighting, interviews, and many other technical aspects.”

Rowan is proudest of Wordsworth’s Spirit Center broadcasts, modeled after ESPN’s SportsCenter, which provide daily coverage of October Spirit Week activities. Launched during Rowan’s freshman year, Spirit Center has become an impressive polished production.

“There is nothing like putting together a broadcast immediately after something happens,” Rowan said. “It was a big source of growth for me in the studio space.”

“In many ways, Andrew stopped being a ‘student journalist’ a long time ago – he is, simply, a journalist, and one of the highest caliber,” English Department Chair and Wordsworth Co-Advisor Debra Galler said. “His ethics, integrity, and diligence match any professional I’ve worked with. Andrew truly understands the important role of the press in our society, and I know he will use his journalistic skills to make a difference in the world.”

Rowan is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Cupola, the school’s yearbook. In previous years, he served as Photo Editor. Rowan began working on the yearbook staff in middle school.

“(Art Teacher) Mrs. Edmund saw I had interest in journalism and encouraged me to become the yearbook’s middle school correspondent,” Rowan said.

Rowan has also worked for four years in the Moorestown Friends School Marketing and Communications Department. He wrote a number of news stories and features, and also produced several video projects including an “MFS Defined” video series, a video for accepted students, and an aerial tour of the campus using drone video.

During his high school career, he has received an astounding 17 awards from the Garden State Scholastic Press Association, including six First Place awards. Rowan has also been inducted into the Quill and Scroll Society, the high school journalism honor society. Last summer, Rowan attended the highly selective Northwestern-Medill Journalism Institute.

Outside of school, Rowan has served as the Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer for Rockhill restaurant in Cherry Hill. He is also the Marketing and Communications Producer for Congregation Beth El in Voorhees. Rowan founded his own production company in 2013 when he was in seventh grade.

Rowan said he’s been interested in journalism since he began watching “The Today Show” when he was in kindergarten.

“It was always on in my house and I was an early riser,” Rowan said. “I was fascinated by the host’s ability to ask guests questions and learn what people have to say. I eventually became interested in the technical side — learning video production, graphic design, things like that.”

Rowan plans to enroll at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in the fall. He looks forward to joining the Daily Northwestern and the Northwestern News Network. He aspires to a career in broadcast journalism and still has a certain show in mind.

“I haven’t decided if I want to be on the technical side or on the storytelling/reporting side,” Rowan said. “I love to do both and today’s journalists need to do both. I don’t know... maybe I can end up somewhere on the Today Show? You never know.”