{"id":624547,"date":"2026-03-26T13:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/?p=624547"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:32:38","slug":"2026-innovation-pacemaker-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/2026-innovation-pacemaker-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Innovation Pacemaker Finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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NSPA honors innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Six scholastic media programs named Pacemaker finalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 4, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Student media programs from five high schools have been honored by the National Scholastic Press Association as finalists in its Innovation Pacemaker competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacemaker finalists will be honored and Pacemakers announced for the first time during the awards ceremony on Saturday, April 18, at the JEA\/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention<\/a> in Minneapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Innovation Pacemaker is designed to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and reward student media for the courage to take chances to improve service to their customers, readers and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudent media is rapidly changing and top programs are finding innovative ways to deliver content to their readers while building unified and converged teams,\u201d associate director Gary Lundgren said. \u201cPrint is now just one component \u2014 there is far more to a successful student media program than publishing the campus newspaper and yearbook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Pacemaker is the association\u2019s preeminent award,\u201d Executive Director Laura Widmer said. \u201cNSPA is honored to recognize the best of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NSPA Pacemaker, one of the oldest awards for scholastic journalism, has a rich tradition. The association started presenting the prestigious award to high school newspapers soon after the organization was founded in 1921. Throughout the years, yearbooks, magazines, online sites and broadcast programs were added to the competition. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Please join us at the JEA\/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention<\/a><\/strong> April 16-18, 2026, in Minneapolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convention offers hundreds of instructional sessions, keynote speakers from national newsmakers, dozens of media critiques, JEA\u2019s popular on-site media contests and the announcement of NSPA Pacemaker winners. NSPA also offers a convention Best of Show competition that celebrates current student media work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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2026 Innovation Pacemaker finalists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Listed by state<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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El Estoque
<\/strong>Monta Vista High School
Cupertino, California
Student Leadership: Sophia D’Sa, Jillian Ju, Isabelle Kok, Liz Liu, Stella Petzova, Benjamin Zhang
Advisers: Vennessa Nava, Julia Satterthwaite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oviedo Now
<\/strong>Oviedo High School
Oviedo, Florida
Student Leadership: Gabriela Decesare
Adviser: Ben Langevin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Communicator
<\/strong>Community High School
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Student Leadership: Della Bank, Kennedy McDonald, Sadie Palay, Izzy Santiago, Andrea Skerlos
Adviser: Tracy Anderson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LHS Publications
<\/strong>Liberty High School
Lake Saint Lewis, Missouri
Student Leadership: Emily Nguyen, Will Nolan
Adviser: Jonathan Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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KCBY Espa\u00f1ol
<\/strong>Coppell High School
Coppell, Texas
Student Leadership: Aaron Montes, Hemi Riojas
Advisers: Irma Lazos-Kennedy, Stephen Jones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Standard
<\/strong>The American School in London
London, England
Student Leadership: Rina Kobayashi, Ruby Rogers
Adviser: Louisa Avery<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSPA honors innovation Six scholastic media programs named Pacemaker finalists March 4, 2026 MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Student media programs from five high schools have been honored by the National Scholastic Press Association as finalists in its Innovation Pacemaker competition. Pacemaker finalists will be honored and Pacemakers announced for the first time during the awards ceremony on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624556,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624547\/revisions\/624556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentpress.org\/nspa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}