By Kris Brown, IHSPA President
I love finals week. The yearbooks have been delivered, the paper put to bed, and I can see a little time for me in the near future. This is the best time to enter all of the open and upcoming journalism contests, even those with due dates in the fall.
Over the last couple of weeks, I received notices from IHSPA, CSPA, NSPA and Quill & Scroll to submit newspaper and yearbook entries for critiques and contests. I take care of all of them before we leave for the summer, even the entries with due dates in September.
My publications final exam is a modified NSPA Journalist of the Year portfolio and presentation. This gives students a chance to see their growth over the year and share their accomplishments with me and the rest of the publication. It is also a great way for me to gather a list of the best entries for the different contests.
This gives students a chance to see their growth over the year and share their accomplishments with me and the rest of the publication.
By entering all of the contests now, the strongest student work is fresh in my mind, and I can write a more complete introductory letter about the goals and challenges each publication had for this school year. If I wait until the school year begins again, my editorial boards have already set goals for the new year, and we are looking ahead, not back. For critiques, we can also incorporate more suggestions if we have the recommendations at the beginning of the school year.
As you prepare for a well-deserved summer slowdown (because I know we never really stop working with our student publications), I encourage you to spend a little extra time getting all of your contest entries sent out. Even if you have a fall delivery book, you can submit many of the PDFs through the digital submission process, like IHSPA’s BetterBNC platform.
Open contest/critique entry due dates:
- CSPA Medalist Critique, Crown Awards and Gold Circle Awards (spring publications/media) – June 10
- NSPA Individual Awards – June 10
- IHSPA Newspaper – July 15
- Quill & Scroll News Media Evaluation – June 15
- NSPA Newspaper Pacemaker – June 30
- NSPA Broadcast Pacemaker – June 39
- IHSPA Yearbook – Sept. 16
- CSPA Medalist Critique, Crown Awards and Gold Circle Awards (fall yearbooks) – Oct. 11
- Quill & Scroll Yearbook Excellence Contest – Nov. 1
- NSPA Publications Critique – Dec. 1
