Suburbs boast the best in high school journalism
When a high school football team hits the state championships, cheerleaders do back flips, coaches get slaps on the back and photographers jostle for pictures of the quarterback.
When a high school newspaper becomes a finalist for what many call the "Pulitzer" of high school journalism, students may not even know they're brushing elbows with the paper's stars.
"They don't perform, they don't have the band concert," said Jason Block, the teacher adviser for Prospect High School's newspaper, The Prospector. "They don't understand in the building -- the kids don't -- how hard (the newspaper staff members) work and how high the quality of work they're doing is."
But someone understands, specifically the National Scholastic Press Association and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, which co-sponsor the annual Pacemaker awards, given to the elite in high school journalism.
This year, only 53 high school papers in the nation were chosen to be finalists. Of the six from Illinois, five are in the suburbs.
Out of 348 entries, judges picked newspapers for the Pacemaker based on a variety of criteria including content, art and in-depth reporting. The award is given for the previous school year's papers.
MORE COVERAGEWhat are writers and editors at the best local high school newspapers focusing on?The Rolling Meadows High School Pacer on ... youth obseity
The Central Times on ... OCD
The Prospect High Prospector on ... the floods
The Stevenson High Statesman on ... free speech
Lake Zurich High Bear Facts on ... healthful food
The winners are set to be announced at a convention in November. And from the complete newbies to the veterans, all the papers have a reason to be there.The newcomers
This is the first year the Lake Zurich High School newspaper, Bear Facts, nabbed a finalist position.But it doesn't seem likely to be its last."They're gelling more as a team and understanding that newspaper production is not about seeing their byline but about producing a solid publication," adviser Carolyn Wagner said. Tim Ekl, managing editor and a senior, named a piece on the school field house controversy as one of his favorite stories from last year."We were able to apply a little bit of investigative journalism to that," he said. Hayleigh Colombo, editor-in-chief and a senior, said the staff targeted their audience with great success."We've really focused on kind of looking at the needs of our readers," Colombo said, naming the writing style of newspaper heavyweight the Wall Street Journal as an inspiration. "We as a staff really want to push our newspaper toward really quality, newsworthy stories."The right stuff
At Stevenson High School, adviser Barb Thill isn't surprised to hear the Statesman is up for its second Pacemaker award since she arrived in 2003."Last year, I just had an amazing group of seniors," she said. "They were just so into it."She remembers a horrible accident in front of school the staff members struggled to cover accurately but with compassion."It was just the kind of story where everybody said the kids did a really great job," Thill said.The paper's managing editor, Jamie Hausman, said she thinks the key is a spirit of cooperation."We all try and help each other as much as we can," Hausman said. "We kind of have fun making the paper."But like the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae, a Pacemaker makes the year even better."This was kind of like putting the bow on the package," Thill said. "It kind of validates, I think, what we all thought." The regulars
The Pacemaker award is prestigious, but so is Naperville Central's newspaper program.In the 18 years Linda Kane has advised the paper, they've been finalists about 10 times and won about six or seven times, she said. But she doesn't let that get to her -- or her students' -- heads. "It's, like, a really big deal to them," Kane said. "The kids watch every year. They know before I do."Last year's editor-in-chief, Lauren Sieben, said the award meant more to her because of a recent redesign she spearheaded at the paper."We pretty much did that all by ourselves," said Sieben, now a journalism, communications and Spanish major at the University of Iowa. "It was kind of a risk we took."And though the school has a fantastic track record with Pacemakers, Sieben said they don't focus on the award."It's not really something that we go into our work thinking, "This is the only reason," she said. "It's a goal. It's not the only reason we're involved in the paper."The family affair
Rolling Meadows High School newspaper adviser Stan Zoller refuses to take credit for his staff's finalist award."It's not an adviser thing," he said. "What impresses me more is the consistency of the quality of the journalism."But Pacemakers apparently run in the family because Zoller's son, Mike, a senior at Miami of Ohio, just found out his college paper is also a finalist for the award.Zoller said it's fun to watch young journalists be rewarded for all their hard work."I was so pleased for the kids," he said. "We've got a great group of kids here."And though no one at the school can remember being a finalist for the award before, John Bark, the Pacer's editor-in-chief, learned quickly how prestigious it was."For me, it's like a big deal. I'm really excited," Bark said, noting he thinks the staff deserves the honor. "When we wrote about controversial topics, we upheld our ethics."The teammates
If you notice a distinct "Go Team" attitude wafting from the Prospector staff, that's no mistake.Block, the Mount Prospect paper's adviser, talks a lot like a football coach. He peppers conversations with phrases like, "You never expect to win something like that," and, "Everyone's at a different level."The former sports editor brings that same attitude to advising young reporters, calling the Pacemaker "our state championship."And though staff members says they do occasionally rib Block about it, the sports analogies seem to be working. This is the second time in three years the Prospect High School paper has been a finalist."I don't think we really sort of like to measure our success by other papers," co-editor in chief Alex Brewer said. "We try to meet our own standards of excellence."Fellow editor-in-chief Virgil Bonifazi agreed."We always want to get detail, emotion, creativity, something that will blow people away," he said, while admitting the award -- though not needed -- is nice. "It feels good to be acknowledged after doing that much work." 512370Seniors Adin Lenahan and Joy Bradford discuss stories while working on the Pacer, the school newspaper at Rolling Meadows High School. It is one of six finalists in the state for a Pacemaker award.Joe Lewnard | Staff Photographer 512337Former Naperville Central High School student Tiffany Lu, shown here in 2006, worked as features editor on the school's newspaper last year, the time for which it garnered its most recent Pacemaker finalist award.Marcelle Bright | Staff Photographer 512346From left, junior Margaux Henquinet, senior Paige O'Neil and junior Kailey Schipp discuss story budgets for the Prospector. Prospect High's newspaper is a finalist for the Pacemaker award.Joe Lewnard | Staff Photographer 512351Jenna Rodrigues, 16, works in the newsroom at The Statesman newspaper at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. The publication was one of six Illinois high school finalists for the prestigious national Pacemaker award.Gilber R. Boucher II | Staff Photographer