By Gargoyle news staff


Posted Saturday, April 14, 2007, The OG, news & student awards

THE STAFF OF the Gargoyle, Uni High's student newspaper, won awards this weekend in two journalism competitions.

The Gargoyle was named one of three overall winners of the National Scholastic Press Association's 2007 Online Pacemaker contest. The other winners were The Paly Voice of Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, Calif., and the Grizzly Gazette of Granite Hills High School, Porterville, Calif.

The winners were announced at the NSPA's spring convention in Denver, Colo.

The Online Pacemaker is the highest award that a scholastic online publication can receive from the NSPA, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis that has promoted high school journalism since 1921.

Online publications are judged on the basis of design, navigation, writing/editing, graphics, and interactivity. This year's competition was judged throughout the months of February and March.

Nine publications were named finalists in late February. The Gargoyle was one of only two finalists from a school located outside of California. Silver Chips from Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Md., was the other.

Senior Ben Hyman is the Gargoyle's 2006-07 online editor. The other senior editors are Dana Al-Qadi (news), Emma Anselin (features), Devika Bagchi (photos), Jonathon Baron (arts & entertainment), Michael Belmont (sports), Maddy Hamlin (multimedia), Daisy Hassani (news), Annie Liang (in depth), and Bianca Zaharescu (opinions).

Work on the online version of the Gargoyle began during the summer of 2005, led by Angelina Liang (Class of 2006), with assistance from David Boyle (‘06), Tom Wiltzius (‘06), and Baron. Hyman, whose family had recently moved to C-U from Maryland, joined the online team in the fall of 2005.

With Angelina Liang serving as the Gargoyle's first online editor, The OG debuted on Feb. 9, 2006.

In another competition whose winners were announced this weekend — the Eastern Illinois High School Press Association newspaper contest — the Gargoyle was named best overall publication in the Under 500 Enrollment category.

The EIHSPA is a nonprofit organization based at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Membership is open to schools throughout Illinois.

The organization sponsors two major contests annually: a yearbook competition in the fall, and a newspaper contest in the spring. Uni High's 2005-06 yearbook won first place in the small-school category earlier this year.

This marks the first time that both the Uni yearbook and newspaper have won EIHSPA's top honors in the same year.

The EIHSPA newspaper competition consists of 12 categories. First place in each category receives five points, second place three points, and third place one point. The school with the most points overall wins top honors in its enrollment category.

The Gargoyle finished with 49 points. U-High Midway, the University of Chicago Laboratory High School's newspaper, placed second with 45 points.

Anything published between March 2006 and March 2007 was eligible. Gargoyle staffers won the following awards:

• News story: Michael Belmont & Shivani Khanna, 3rd place

• Feature story: Andrea Park & Sarah Pfander, 1st place; Andrea Park & Emma Anselin, 2nd place

• Sports story: Sergei Pourmal, 1st place

• Photo: Emma Anselin, 1st place; Sam Smyth, 2nd place

• Editorial: Senior editors, 2nd place

• Column: Shivani Khanna, 1st place

• Infographic: Emma Anselin, 1st place

• Cartoon: Yuzuko Nakamura, 3rd place

• Front-page design: Gargoyle, 1st place

• Overall design: Gargoyle, 1st place

• Review: Sarah Pfander, 2nd place

RELATED

— National Scholastic Press Association: Official site

— National Scholastic Press Association: Online Pacemaker winners announced

— Gargoyle coverage: Yearbook wins Eastern Illinois contest