NHS yearbook staff wins major national award
Northside High School’s yearbook staff has won its first national award,
and in the process became the first southwest Virginia school to ever be honored by
the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)with its top award, the Pacemaker.
Twenty-six
schools took home Pacemakers from the NSPA national convention held at the Oregon
Convention Center where 3,300 student journalists gathered to develop and discover
trends.
“There are more than 27,000 public high schools in this country,” said Ann Akers, educational specialist for Herff Jones (the company that worked with the NHS yearbook staff). “It’s hard for folks to wrap their heads around being listed among the top 50 in any discipline. We can’t compare one championship to another, but if you consider you may have a regional, district or even state champion sports team, debate team or marching band. That’s great, and certainly we all know how hard those competitors prepared for their honors. They compete against a handful of schools and on a given day, they may win or lose.
“A national publication award results from head-to-head comparisons with hundreds of
others from across the country,” she continued. “Some of these schools may have many
more students, much larger budgets, much nicer cameras and much faster computers.
Regardless, publications are evaluated by an impartial blue ribbon panel consisting of
professional journalists, magazine editors and designers, journalism professors and
authors, software experts and retired award-winning publication advisers. These panels
spend days going through the publications page by page and literally comparing every
detail. They make several passes and cull at the end of each round until they feel the
remaining publications represent the very best student work being done.”
Long-time followers of national award-winning student media liken making the CSPA and
NSPA lists to “student Pulitzers” since the award process is based on the Pulitzer process,
and is just as intense. As the Pulitzer Prize is the highest award in professional journalism,
as are these awards to student journalists. Crowns are conferred by Columbia University
just as Pulitzers. The similarities are vast.
There are two independent scholastic press associations. One is known as CSPA
or Columbia Scholastic Press Association. It is a program of the Graduate School of
Journalism at Columbia University in New York City. More than 3,500 students attend this
convention each March on the university’s Ivy League campus. CSPA awards Gold and
Silver Crowns. The second is called NSPA or National Scholastic Press Association. It is
sponsored by the Journalism Educators Association (JEA) and is based at Kansas State
University School of Journalism. NSPA awards Pacemakers and Finalists. Its conventions
attract more between 3,000 and 6,500 students, and are held twice yearly at different
locations around the country. The two associations are equally as impressive, and the
awards are considered equally as prestigious.
(Last updated 4/26/10)