The Pat Lancaster Prize was founded in 2021 to recognize excellence in the field of school journalism for seniors at Glendale High School. It was named in honor of Mr. Patrick Lancaster, the legendary teacher, coach and athletic director, who retired from GHS in 2020 and had been the Explosion advisor at our school since 1993.
Seniors who have written for our Explosion website submitted up to four articles for consideration for this year’s award. Their submissions fell under four categories: Features, Opinion, Reviews, and Spotlight.
A panel of GHS teachers then read these submissions, and they ranked them based on the quality of their writing, the clarity of their reporting and a list of other criteria.
Ultimately, there was a finalist, and two semi-finalists, chosen for each category. Then our teacher panelists, along with our entire Nitro Press staff, read and ranked the four finalists, leaving us with our winner for the 6th Annual Lancaster Prize.
Here are the results:
2026 Lancaster Prize Winner
“The Financial Trap of Modern Universities”
Category: Opinion
2026 Lancaster Prize Finalists
“Cinema Clocks in Their Capstone Film”
Category: Features
Category: Reviews
Category: Spotlight
2026 Lancaster Prize Semi-Finalists
Features
“The Bell Is Back Home Again!”
Reviews
“Review: Don’t Be Dumb, A$AP Rocky”
“Review: Hope on the Street Vol. 1, J-hope”
Opinion
“Financial Literacy Is an Essential Skill!”
“Try Having a Good Mythical Morning”
Spotlight
“Mr. Chan Can Turn a Classroom into Kinetic Energy!”
“Shaylee and Jayden are United in Leadership”
Congratulations to all of our amazing finalists and semi-finalists. We hope that future writers for our news website are inspired by your achievements.
Thank you to our panel of GHS teachers who read and ranked our submissions: Anita Arjoyan, Kristina Carbajal, Sydnee Castaneda, Holly Ciotti, Shannon Clark-Reed, Lala Gevorkian, Lisa Keefer, Amy Mkrtchian, Sona Postajian, Greta Sukazian and Michael Watter. Your support means the world to me.
Thank you to the members of our 2025-26 Explosion staff, who continue to impress me with the quality of the work they produce every day. I have learned more from them than they could possibly have learned from me.
And thank you to Patrick Lancaster, for his continued friendship, support and guidance throughout the years.
Previous Lancaster Prize Winners
2021
In honor of his indelible contribution to the Explosion website during the COVID-19 pandemic
2022
Category: Reviews
2023
Category: Opinion
2024
Category: Features
2025
“The AI Art Epidemic Must Be Stopped”
Category: Opinion
