The National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) awarded the Chronicle fourth place for its Best of Show award and recognized the newspaper as one of 60 finalists for its prestigious Pacemaker award for high school publications. The winners of the awards were announced Nov. 21 at the virtual Journalism Education Association/NSPA High School Journalism Convention.
The NSPA Pacemaker award recognizes the hard work of the staff of high school student publications across the country and in the United Kingdom. The award was created a few years after the founding of the NSPA in 1921 and has been given to high school newspapers ever since.
Since joining the school staff as adviser of the Chronicle and Modern Journalism teacher in 2015, Jim Burns has overseen the publication of the past 42 issues of the newspaper.
“Out of [over 4,000 students and teacher advisers], to have a 4th place finish is just remarkable, especially since we’re finishing better now that everybody is remote than we were when we were all together,” Burns said. “That shows an incredible amount of dedication from the staff because [writing from home] is not easy.”
The Chronicle’s “3 and Out” placed 10th in the podcast category
Adding to the list of awards won by the Chronicle, podcast “3 and Out” placed 10th in the NSPA’s Best of Show in the podcast category for its third episode titled “2020/21 Episode.” Hosted by Chronicle Print Managing Editor Jaidev Pant ’21, Digital Managing Editor and Broadcast Producer Kyle Reims ’21 and Broadcast Producer Alex Amster ’21, the podcast focuses on professional and collegiate football.
“Receiving [the award] was a validation for the work that we’ve put into the podcast,” Reims said. “From booking the guests, to finding a time to record, to recording and finally editing, we all put in as much effort as we could to ensure we were producing the best we could.”
Pant, Reims and Amster have been the sole producers of the podcast since 2018, inviting various guests on to discuss each week’s games in the NFL and NCAA and to look ahead to the next week’s games.
“While we’d be proud of [the work put into the podcast] no matter what, it’s an extra boost to know that others recognize the work we’ve put in,” Reims said.
