Kyra Steck, an Island native and an intern at The Martha’s Vineyard Times, became the Feature Writing national winner in the small-school division of the 2020 Mark of Excellence National Winners and Finalists. According to the Society of Professional Journalists, the competition recognizes and “honors the best in student journalism.” Judges chose only works deemed “worthy of a national honor,” leading to some categories having no winners.
Steck won through her “Voices on Racism” series, published through The MV Times while she was a student at Northwestern University. These writings reflected the thoughts of those affected by racism on Martha’s Vineyard, and stemmed from the death of George Floyd, who was killed by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. In an introduction to the “Voices of Racism” project, Steck said that Martha’s Vineyard is for the most part politically liberal and has a strong Black community. Therefore, some people were confused about a conversation on race being necessary, since they thought racism wasn’t an issue on the Island. Steck set out to show through the oral testimony the experiences of Islanders who are ethnic minorities, and as a way to encourage people to keep listening. These publications were published on Nov. 19. You can read Steck’s works from the competition here.