Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Los Gatos High School student Gina Marie Tirado Strayer, 17, won an award from the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation in the journalism and literature category.
Student journalist wins award sponsored by NBC TV stations
By Rebecca Ray
Los Gatos High School senior Gina Marie Tirado Strayer was worried when she was recently called into Vice Principal Kathleen Eaton's office.
Eaton said that a representative from the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation was on the phone. Strayer thought she might have forgotten to complete the foundation's scholarship application. Instead, the phone call was to inform her that she had won the scholarship.
"It was really shocking," said Strayer, 17, who serves as co-editor-in-chief for the high school newspaper, El Gato. The paper won an award from the National Scholastic Press Association award last year. "I feel really honored and really surprised. I'm still getting used to it."
Strayer won the award in the literature and journalism category, which is sponsored by NBC television stations for seniors in the San Jose region. Strayer was one of 83 students in metropolitan areas across the country who received $2,000, to use toward his or her education, and a personal computer. The foundation, which strives to provide a greater understanding of the contributions of Hispanic Americans in the United States, also donated $1,000 to community organizations chosen by the winners. Strayer chose Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose, partly because it serves a large Hispanic population.
Strayer, who has worked on the El Gato staff for three years, said she thought it was important to cover as many students as possible when reporting, rather then just students who received a lot of coverage and recognition for their achievements. Strayer said she felt that students who received less recognition and who had unique talents and traits should be covered, as well.
Strayer has proposed and written about topics such as child abuse, which she wrote about during her sophomore year. She recently contributed to a story about the different cultural experiences at her school and at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose.
For this story, which ran in the center section of the school newspaper, students from each of the two schools visited the other school and reported on how its culture and environment differed from their school's. Strayer wrote about Mount Pleasant's English as a Second Language program.
Strayer is currently interviewing students and faculty members about how the two recent gun scares at Los Gatos High School and the school shootings around the nation have affected them.
"She's a tremendous leader," El Gato advisor Julie Alonzo said. "Gina has excellent journalistic skills. She's a great writer. She has a great deal of personal integrity and understands the role that a high school newspaper plays in a student's life."
Strayer and the other co-editor-in-chief of El Gato, senior Alessandro Morosin, 18, have worked on team building among the newspaper staff by encouraging every staff member to speak up in the journalism class. She and Morosin have also implemented a system that allows every staff member to be involved in making decisions, rather than just the advisor and editors.
"It's a total breeze working with Gina, in the sense that she's very, very organized and approachable," Morosin said. "She's an incredibly sharp girl with a sweet disposition and tons of positive ideas."
Strayer's personal motto was born during the time her grandfather was dying of lung cancer. Above his hospital bed was a sign that read, "Attitude is 90 percent of the battle." In fact, Strayer said she thought it was her persistent attitude that helped her get into the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she will attend this fall. Strayer said she would eventually like to edit for a news publication such as Newsweek.
The foundation will present Strayer and seven other seniors from Silicon Valley with their scholarships on April 11, at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
