BY ELINA LIN ’28
On Thursday, May 21, student journalists in “The JerEcho” and “The Jericho News Network” were recognized for their broadcast journalism work at this year’s Broadcast Alliance for Senior High Awards (BASH Awards). Founded by the Southold School District in 2017, BASH is an annual event that commemorates student journalism and video production.
According to BASH’s president, Mr. David Gamberg, BASH was originally created to recognize the growing interest in school news broadcasts, as no other event had done so before. The first BASH conference and awards were organized by Mr. Gamberg, two teachers, and his secretary at Southold High School; the awards were modeled after similar events for school newspapers. “The main goal was and remains to empower students, teachers, and schools to use this concept to tell the stories of their school communities,” said Mr. Gamberg.
Since its founding, BASH has grown significantly in both its size and purpose. The event started with just 9 schools and 150 students, and since then has expanded to almost 1,000 students from over 60 schools. For the first time, BASH also held a second event in Westchester, which included around 225 students from 11 schools. Mr. Gamberg explained that BASH has also worked to offer more opportunities for student involvement, such as poster sessions and the Wild Card challenge, which is a partnership with Island Harvest that raises awareness about local food insecurity in schools.
While BASH is held at Hofstra University, it is hosted by a different school each year. This year, BASH was hosted by Oyster Bay High School, who emceed the awards. This year, Jericho High School students placed in the Spotlight Awards division of the event. Bhavin Balgobind ’26 and Vivienne Scharf ’27 won second place for Best Anchor Team, while Achint Kaur ’27 and Eva Brown ’27 won second place in the Wild Card category.
Achint and Eva’s Wild Card submission centered around a Jericho High School student-run food drive that was held in partnership with a local food pantry. Eva said that her role in the project was editing and creating the short video. The video feature was able to highlight a valuable community story, which BASH ultimately recognized.
In addition to awards, the conference portion of this event allowed participating students to network with other student broadcasters and even meet expert news anchors from ABC and NBC News during breakout sessions. Jericho students Zoya Khan ’26 and Archana Hariharan ’26 presented on successfully integrating student voice into broadcasts during such a breakout session.
For Mr. Gamberg, one of the most meaningful parts of BASH is seeing how student broadcast programs can help school communities tell their stories, a goal reflected in Jericho’s success at this year’s event. “We are delighted that Jericho students continue to not only attend, but be active,” added Mr. Gamberg.
Congratulations to all the 2026 BASH winners!
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