Three members of The Patriot staff, junior In-Focus Editor Caroline Cooney and seniors Media Editor Mitch Hopkins and Online Chief Kishan Patel recently won awards from the Quill and Scroll International Honor Society and Youth Journalism International.

Both Cooney and Hopkins won Quill and Scroll Sweepstakes awards, which recognize the best entry in a specific category. Hopkins was a Sweepstakes Winner in Front Page Design for “The Gun Issue,” while Cooney was a Sweepstakes Winner in Editorial Writing for “Islam deserves understanding.”

“I think it is a really great thing that [Islam deserves understanding] won an award and the topic got the attention that it deserved,” Cooney said.

Quill and Scroll also named Cooney a winner and was named a National Winner in Sports Photography for “Preview of football championships.”

Youth Journalism International recognized two staffers, Patel and Cooney, for their excellence in journalism as well.

Patel won second place in the Photo Illustration category for “Senior prepares for last season.” He was also awarded an honorable mention in Sports Features for the same story. In Sports Photography, Patel won another honorable mention for “Turf field shapes community’s future,” which was “captured at just the right moment,” according to the Youth Journalism judges.

“These awards are a testimony to the class, including Mr. Ionescu and Mr. Attanasio, showing how dedicated everyone is to the paper,” Patel said.

Cooney won an additional honorable mention in Sports Photography for “Football Preview,” the same photo that won her a Quill and Scroll award.

“I think it is pretty unbelievable that the photo won two awards because a lot of people told me how it was a great picture and Devin even made it his Twitter profile picture,” Cooney said.

Adriana Guidi is an Entertainment Editor for the Patriot and jcpatriot.com.