RubicOnline named a 2025 Online Pacemaker Finalist

The Rubicon Online, the website for SPA’s student newspaper, has been named a Pacemaker finalist by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). This is the ninth year since 2016 that the site has been named a finalist in the Pacemaker competition, which is known as "the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism." The Rubicon Online is one of only 34 scholastic news sites from across the country to earn the Pacemaker finalist designation and the only Minnesota publication honored in the finalist list.

Student leaders include Director of RubicOnline Aarushi Bahadur '25 and Production Manager Greyson Sale '26. The site also features The Rubicon print work produced under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Annie Zhang '25 and Managing Editor Juan Miguel Adams '26. Thomas Chen '26 works across both staffs as the Beats Manager.

"I've been particularly proud of the way the staff has imagined what's possible in their development day presentations and their peer training this year," Director of Publications, Kathryn Campbell says. "From Mariam Malik '25 and Audrey Peltier's '27 social media reporting presentations that got the whole staff thinking about Reels and story posts in new ways, to the current video workshop being run by Zimo Xie '26 and Nora McKoy '26, the investment in mentorship and growth is palpable."

Winners will be announced at the JEA/NSPA Spring National Journalism Convention in Seattle, WA from April 24-26.

Pacemaker entries are judged by teams of professionals based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography, and graphics. The Pacemaker is NSPA's preeminent award and recognizes "the best of the best" in high school journalism. Congratulations to The Rubicon staff!