Two Kansas high school newspapers, The Harbinger of Shawnee Mission East and the Guidon of Hays High School, earned the nation’s highest prize for scholastic journalists when the National Scholastic Press Association announced the 2009 Pacemaker recipients this past weekend at the JEA/NSPA Fall Convention.
The Harbinger won in the 17 or more page category while the Guidon won in the 16 or fewer page category.
This is Hays High School’s first Pacemaker and an unexpected one. Five years ago, the school was thinking of discontinuing the journalism program, but Bill Gasper stepped in and worked hard to turn the program around.
At the beginning of the last school year, he and his editor, Thayne Griffin, decided their goal for the year was to be an All-Kansas paper, and did consistent work to reach that goal.
“We had some really good solid in depth stories that were pertinent to students as well as adults that might have read the paper,” Gasper said.
Griffin kept their goal in mind and focused on the details of the paper to keep each issue consistent with one another.
“In the past, we tended to make small, but noticeable errors. So last year, I took it upon myself to read pages upwards of five times in some cases to make sure everything was in order,” Griffin said. “Some people may have thought I was overdoing it, but I truly believe small things like that helped separate us from other newspapers.”
When Gasper, Griffin and the rest of the Guidon staff found out they were an All-Kansas paper, Gasper said they were excited and they did not think they would also be considered for a Pacemaker.
“Winning All-Kansas was a thrill to us because that was our initial goal, we were pretty bound and determined we were going to win it,” Gasper said. “I was pretty humbled that we were selected as a finalist (for the Pacemaker), it was beyond our imagination.”
Dow Tate, adviser for The Harbinger, was also surprised his staff was selected as a finalist for a Pacemaker.
“We have a different look, and we’re not what most people consider a traditional newspaper look, so when I first started looking down the list of Pacemaker finalists I didn’t think we were going to be on it,” Tate said.
Stephen Nichols, last year’s Harbinger editor, believes the writing as well as innovative design is what made their paper stand out.
“We also tried to cover a wide array of story ideas that actually impacted students’ everyday lives,” Nichols said. “Whether that meant a story about the ping pong club or a look at how the financial crisis was impacting student college decisions, we really took a conscientious approach to the editing process.”
The work it takes to earn a Pacemaker was a lot for these two staffs, and as a result Griffin took a lot of skills he learned in high school journalism with him to college.
“I’m able to work as a collective group towards a common goal and the desire to produce quality work in anything I do.”
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