For the past three years, the Westfield Middle School Yearbook has won a number of national awards and recognitions including being a Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown winner. The staff has another impressive title to add to its honors after the 2013-14 yearbook was recently named a Pacemaker Finalist by the National Scholastic Press Association.
“We have never won this one before but it has always been one of our main goals,” said Allie Staub, yearbook teacher.
Staub said the Crown and Pacemaker awards are the two highest honors a yearbook can receive for overall excellence.
“Depending on who you ask, typically the Pacemaker is a bit more difficult to win than the crown,” she said. “To win both honors in one year means that this book is really one of the best middle school books in the country … I already told last year’s staff and to say they are excited would be an understatement.”
The pacemaker winners will be announced at the JEA/NSPA Denver convention in April. Staub also will receive her Journalism Education Association’s Rising Stars as one of 11 teachers with five or fewer years of experience already establishing themselves in the field.
“I am probably a little more excited about this one than even my rising star award just because we have been trying to win it for the last three years and I think that having my students achieve their goals and achieve such great recognition means even more than my own,” she said.
