Silver Chips is one of ten national finalists for the Pacemaker award sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation. Winners will be notified at the end of October whether they will be honored as first place winners at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention on Nov 21-24 in Dallas.
Walt Whitman High School's newspaper, Black and White, is also one of the ten finalists in the category of school newspapers with over 17 pages. Silver Chips is one of only three finalists from the east coast.
The Pacemaker has been awarded since 1971, although the NSPA has issued awards since 1927. The judges, who are professional journalists with the Boston Globe, grade newspapers based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography and art and graphics.
The last time Silver Chips won the Pacemaker award, which is given to the top high school paper in the country, was in 1975.
Over the summer, alumni Julia Kay and Liam Bowen both became finalists for the Hemingway awards, which honor the top four writers in the nation for work in a type of journalism writing.
Silver Chips also won the Children's National Medical Center's 15th Annual Student Journalists' Health Writing Contest for the fifteenth year in a row. Matthew Yalowitz won the $100 first place "Mathwin Award," which was dedicated to Silver Chips' sponsor John Mathwin last year because Chips has won the contest every year it has been held.
Silver Chips staffers Nora Berenstain, Jessica Stamler, Gabriel Morden-Snipper and Shannon Sanders won second and third place and two honorable mentions.
In addition to these other honors, Eddie Chan won a $300 scholarship for winning third place in the 2002 Society of Professional Journalists National "Freedom of the Press High School Essay Contest."
Copies of Eddie's essay and further details about all of the award winners, can be found on Silver Chips Online.
Annie Peirce. Annie Peirce is a senior in the Communications Arts Program and the public relations manager for Silver Chips. She is also an opinions editor for Silver Chips Online. She was born on October 25, 1984, in a hospital somewhere in Prince George's County; but doesn't … More »
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