(Story written by Ellie Coulston, Bowie High School journalism student).

For the first time in nearly 20 years, The James Bowie Dispatch has been nominated for the National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker award.

 The NSPA recognized The Dispatch as an All-American paper with four marks of distinction for its 2017–18 publications.

The Pacemaker is a journalism award for scholastic publications in the United States. The Pacemaker is judged on coverage, content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography and graphics.

“I really do believe that it was the dedication of the staff and the amazing editors that we had last year that brought us to the level needed to be nominated,” Editor in Chief Abby Ong said. “The amount of time the staff put in to not just simply get their work done but to continue improving and gaining skills every issue helped elevated us across the board in terms of content and coverage.”

In the last year, The Dispatch has also won awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Silver Crown, and earned best in show from the JEA/NSPA national convention, including a second place award at the San Francisco convention last April.

“Last year, under our former EIC Violet Glenewinkel, the paper underwent a dramatic change from the more traditional design it had been to a more modernized design,” Ong said. “We pushed for continuous improvement on all aspects of the paper, including photography, art and writing.”

Newspaper adviser Michael Reeves said that not only is the award a big accomplishment for the newspaper, but that it also has a positive effect on the journalism program at Bowie.

“We are exactly where we need to be. It is a progression. You do well as individuals, then you do well in your state and nationally as individuals, then you start winning state staff awards, finally those national nominations and awards start coming in,” Reeves said. “This one ranks up there with the CSPA crown we won last year.”

Sixty-seven other middle schools and high schools were nominated as finalists for this award, and the results will be announced at the Journalism Education Association’s fall national journalism convention in Chicago, Nov. 1–4.