The Chronicle won the award often called the Pulitzer Prize of high school journalism, the National Pacemaker, for its 2008-2009 issues.

Professional journalists from the Seattle area judged the contest, looking at six issues of last year’s newspaper, edited by Lucy Jackson ’09 and Andrew Lee ’09.

The Chronicle had previously been notified that it was a finalist for the honor, and received a finalist’s plaque as well as the Pacemaker itself, at an awards ceremony attended by some 6300 high school journalists at the Marriott Wardman-Park in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Nov. 14.

The November 2009 edition of the Chronicle also was named first place in the Best of Show competition among the schools attending the convention, in the large newspaper category for papers published 17 or more pages. The Chronicle entered had 36 pages.

The Chronicle’s website was seventh in the Best of Show website category, and the Big Red Sports magazine was 10th in newspaper special editions.

The Spectrum, the middle school newspaper, was third in the junior high school newspaper category.

Thirty-four members of the Çhronicle and Vox staffs attended the  awards ceremony as well as the National Scholastic Press Association’s fall convention.

They visited the Newseum, toured the U.S. Capitol as guests of former Chronicle editor Michael Borden ’95, now senior counsel to the House Finance Committee, who took them onto the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, and sat in on the Page One meeting of the New York Times in its Washington bureau.