About

The WVM contest accepts previously published work only — drafts, class assignments, and unpublished material are not eligible. All entries must have been produced through a school-affiliated journalism program (newspaper, magazine, broadcast, yearbook, or journalism website) and published within the contest's annual eligibility window, which runs approximately February to February. Entries are submitted digitally by a journalism adviser through a spreadsheet-based system, with a fee of $8 per entry; a single student may enter multiple categories. Categories span news writing, feature writing, sports writing, editorial writing, column writing, review writing, photography (news, feature, sports, portrait), editorial cartoon, graphic design, video, documentary, podcast, interactive infographic, and social media journalism, among others. Judges are professional journalists and journalism educators; 10–15% of entries in each category receive recognition. Winners are announced in the spring. Quill and Scroll also administers a Yearbook Excellence Contest for school yearbook programs and a separate PSJA Journalism Contest for private and independent school students.

The credential's admissions weight is honest to state: Quill and Scroll's reach — 14,000 member schools and 1.5 million members — means participation and even recognition at the local level is widespread. First-place WVM recognition, evaluated by professional journalists against a genuinely competitive national field, is a meaningful signal for students targeting journalism, media studies, or communications programs. It is the most established individual journalism credential available at the high school level, and for a student with a strong portfolio of published work, submitting to WVM is the most direct route to external professional validation of that work before college.

The Quill and Scroll WVM Contest is the right competition for a high school student actively producing journalism — the published-work requirement means the credential reflects real reporting and editing experience, and first-place recognition from professional judges is exactly the kind of external validation that journalism and media programs look for in applicants.