Journalism teacher Julia Satterthwaite was named the 2025 National High School Journalism Adviser of the Year by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) on Feb. 7, 2025, a title that reflects her work on El Estoque. She also serves as President and Digital Media Chair of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California and is the FUHSD English Department Lead. She has also previously won a Distinguished Adviser Award from CSPA and will accept the teacher of the year award at the CSPA Conference in New York City in March.
The thorough application process includes a variety of personal questions, letters of recommendation written by El Estoque Editor-in-Chiefs, administration, and colleagues, as well as a statement about a pressing issue, which Julia chose to write about media literacy. When she received a call from CSPA, she thought it was about something entirely different and was shocked when she found out she had won Adviser of the Year.
“Immediately it was an excited rush, followed a little bit by embarrassment,” Julia said. “It’s something that I’m working on, receiving recognition for hard work that I’ve done. Rather than belittling it, I’m really trying to focus on being like, ‘Yeah, it’s a big deal.’ I’m trying to switch my own self-talk to a more positive place. It’s OK to get acknowledged for work that I do because I work hard and I love my job, and the things that I do to contribute to the profession really do matter.”
Julia’s fellow El Estoque adviser and friend Vennessa Nava was not surprised by Julia’s win, citing her 20 years of experience in journalism education. According to Nava, Julia consistently supports her students as they apply for various journalism awards while simultaneously taking the lead in a handful of journalism organizations, constantly striving to improve.
“She’s just so deeply connected to the national and local journalism organizations, it’s like she bleeds journalism,” Nava said. “One of the things that I deeply appreciate about Julia is the way that she is very curious, that she wants to stop and ask questions. She wants to understand people. She is often striving to give people the benefit of the doubt or recognize where they’re coming from, and I think that a lot of that also translates into her own self-reflection and striving to always evolve as a person.”
Homestead High School English and Journalism teacher Natalie Owsley shares this sentiment. Over the past two years, Julia has earned the honor of being FUHSD’s Teacher of the Year in 2023 and was selected as the English Curriculum Lead. Owsley explains that her dedication to not only journalism but teaching as a whole has contributed to her eligibility for this national award.
“This honor reveals just how valuable she is as a teacher in our district,” Owsley said. “I feel lucky and proud to have Julia as a colleague in journalism and I value her expertise, advice and critiques with regard to my own teaching practice.”
Josh Miller, the adviser to Lynbrook High School’s publication, The Epic, and longtime friend to Julia, also recognizes her contributions to the district and to the FUHSD journalism team of advisers. She continues to push for a more collaborative team and mentors and supports her colleagues, with Miller describing her as the first person he reaches out to whenever he or his students have a question about journalism. Miller explains that Julia has advanced the field of journalism nationally and locally. For example, she brought together FUHSD’s journalism advisers for their annual summer Journalism Camp.
Julia’s husband, Rod Satterthwaite, is a journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School. Rod commends Julia’s ability to be a force in the journalism world, tirelessly elevating and teaching her students and fellow advisers, in addition to raising her sons and taking care of her family.
“I’m excited to share with her the award in New York, and it’ll be awesome that so many of her students will be there,” Rod said. “Somebody like Julia is like an unsung hero. She does a lot of work and doesn’t really want or take a bunch of credit, so I think it will be cool to see her get some recognition that she really deserves.”
Julia hopes that members of El Estoque and the field of journalism as a whole gain media literacy skills, especially in the face of rising AI usage. During her time in the field of journalism, she says she has networked with organizations and other leaders in the field and explains that the more she is connected, the better the program and the published product. Her involvement with groups like the National JEA Board and the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association provides her with the resources to keep learning and growing as a teacher, and Julia feels like her award is a tribute to her mentors and teachers.
“I’m always evolving and learning as a journalism adviser, and that’s something that I think is really important,” Julia said. “As Adviser of the Year, that’s something that I want to try to work on, getting more folks connected into their organizations, and that way they can be learning alongside other folks who do the job. That’s how I learned to do it, by working with other people who have done it well and passed on great advice.”
