Vibrato, Magazine

Each year, the National Scholastic Press Association recognizes excellence in student media with scholastic journalism’s preeminent award, the Pacemaker. Pacemakers are awarded in each category of publication — online, newspaper, yearbook, magazine and broadcast.

Teams of media professionals judge entries based on the following criteria: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography and graphics.

Each week, NSPA features a recent Pacemaker winner on our Featured Pacemaker blog. This week, NSPA contacted Callie Smith, editor-in-chief of 2015 Pacemaker recipient Vibrato for a Q&A. Vibrato is the literary magazine of The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas.

 

NSPA: What were the goals going into last year and how did you ensure those goals were met?          

Callie Smith, editor-in-chief: Our goal was to create a magazine that featured diverse talent from students interested in publishing their work. We also aimed to honor our theme of transparency through graphic design and other artistic elements.

We accomplished our first goal by reviewing work anonymously and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each submission. We met our second goal by using vellum pages and correlating transparency and art, photography, and literature.

 

NSPA: Tell us about a moment you will remember the most about this staff.

CS: One day, we decided to order pizza to break the monotony of our busy schedule.

 

NSPA: What does the Pacemaker mean to you?

MG: We are extremely honored to have received the award. It is rewarding to know that all of the work we put into this magazine was recognized and appreciated.

 

NSPA: What was the toughest moment you faced last year?

MG: Our editors-in-chief held our staff to high standards and we had to work hard to meet their expectations.

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