A graduate of AHS in 2023, Dakota Oswalt, was named Journalist of the Year at the Missouri College Media Association awards ceremony. Oswalt will be the editor-in-chief of the Northwest Missourian during the academic year of 2026-2027. Northwest Missouri State University Student Media had a strong showing, and Oswalt was a part of that. Oswalt said this award meant to her personally because “It shows that other people recognize how much work that I put into the Northwest Missourian.”
After graduating from AHS, Oswalt went to college at Northwest Missouri State University for a degree in Multimedia Journalism. Oswalt will graduate in May 2027. She doesn’t yet know what she’s going to do, but said that “I’m getting a lot of educational experience in the field of writing, like journalistically and just in other ways. And so I know that I want to be a writer, and so I don’t know if I’m gonna be working for a news company or as a communications director or just a freelance writer or anything like that. All I know is I want to write.” She also mentioned that she has experience on and behind the camera of KNWT TV, a student-run TV station as well as a radio station, stating she has a “broad field” that she could go into.
Oswalt said that she was “shocked” when she found out, after being named Journalist of the Year. Stating that “This is the Missouri College Media Association’s, one of their more prestigious awards, and it’s really hard to earn this. Each college around the state is allowed to submit only one person for the opportunity to earn this. And so I was the person that we chose from Northwest, and I got it.” Oswalt’s advice to anyone in a journalism class or considering a career in journalism is “Say yes to every opportunity, even if you don’t think it’s your thing.”
Beforehand, Oswalt was a student in these AHS halls and classrooms. Oswalt went into journalism in her sophomore year. After completing her sophomore year, Oswalt went on to be an editor for AHS Needle, along with editor of the yearbook, and lead producer of the podcast for two years. Then, in Oswalt’s senior year, she was co-editor-in-chief of The Needle. Oswalt said it was “a really awesome opportunity.” Oswalt said her reasoning for going into journalism was that she needed an elective, and “didn’t really think anything of it.” Then, after she started journalism and writing, she found out that she really loved it and that she was good at it. What inspired Oswalt to go into journalism was “Ms. Berryhill, of course, she was my first introduction into journalism. I would also say my parents, because they’ve obviously been helping me throughout college.”
The one thing Oswalt wished she knew before going into journalism was “how hard it would be,” stating that she’s gotten a “lot of threats” on some things she’s written about. AHS prepared Oswalt for college journalism because Ms. Berryhill really gave her the tools that she needed to initially “succeed in the college level,” and Oswalt added that college journalism was a lot different, but she got all the “basic knowledge” from AHS Journalism.
