SPA student journalists honored at JEA/NSPA National Journalism Convention in Boston

Student journalists from Ibid yearbook, Iris: Art + Lit, The Rubicon/RubicOnline, and the Writing for Publication class traveled to Boston, MA for the JEA/NSPA National Journalism Convention from November 2-5, 2023.

NSPA Best of Show

The Best of Show contest was competitive and featured the best publications in the country. Overall, SPA came home with three Best of Show awards.

• 6th Place: Newspaper - The Rubicon

• 6th Place: News Website - RubicOnline 

• 8th Place: Iris: Art + Lit magazine: Literary Art Magazine 

Pacemaker Awards

The Pacemaker honors the best of the best in scholastic journalism. The Rubicon newspaper was announced as one of 54 finalists and, of those, 24 earned Pacemakers. All finalists and winners were recognized at the convention with plaques.

Individual Awards

SPA had five pieces ultimately recognized with awards at the convention in the categories of Multimedia Story of the Year and Design of the Year. 

Multimedia Story of the Year (RubicOnline)

• Multimedia Sports Story - Ivy Raya - Fencing’s first tournament leads to SPA dominance (Honorable Mention)

• Interactive Graphic - Staff - Thirsty? Fill it up. (Honorable Mention)

• Podcast - Alison Mitchell - Through Their Eyes: Ep. 5 ChatGPT and the rise of AI (Honorable Mention)

Design of the Year (Iris: Art + Lit)

• Sophia Bietz '25 - Page Spread (Honorable Mention)

• Sophia Bietz '25, Echo Dayton '26, Hadley Dobish '25 - Literary Magazine Cover (Honorable Mention)

Write-Offs

While in Boston, our journalists competed in National Student Media Contests, which are on-site opportunities where participants walk into a room and have two hours to get the information that they need to produce copy and turn it in on a deadline. With over 1400 entries, JEA awarded 92 superior, 183 excellent, and 326 honorable mentions; our journalists brought home three superiors and six honorable mentions:

Honorable Mention

• Editorial Cartooning - Amanda Hsu '26

• Feature Writing - Clara McKoy '24

• Literary Magazine Illustration - Annika Kim '26

• Literary Magazine Photography - Hadley Dobish '25

• Press Law and Ethics - Ivy Evans '27

• Sports Writing - Olympia Wolff '25

Superior (Journalism Medal)

• Editorial Writing - Siri Pattison '24

• Literary Magazine Layout - Eliza Farley '24

• Review Writing - Eliana Mann '24

Congratulations to our student journalists!