On Sunday, November 10, 2024, eight of the Dispatch’s Staff Members returned from the NSPA and JEA Fall national convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with lots of awards in hand. The Dispatch is a nationally ranked high school journalism program, and was recognized in multiple ways at the convention.
“It was an interesting experience and there were a lot of different speakers that I got to hear and learn from, including sessions on leadership,” junior Editor-in-Chief Liberty Pittman said. “I’ve known for a while our program is a nationally renowned paper, and it was cool to see in competition how it ranked with other schools, and see products other schools were producing.”
For the seventh year in a row, the Dispatch received a Pacemaker for the 2023-24 school year print publication and was one of only 19 schools in the country to do so. A Pacemaker is the highest honor a publication can receive at the high school and middle school level.
“It was an honor to hear our name called for the seventh straight year. When I look back, having almost two full groups of students work their way through the program from freshman to senior year and maintaining this level of success, it makes me very proud of the way the systems have been established here at Bowie,” advisor Michael Reeves said. “One group teaches and guides the next and the level of excellence that has been passed along is amazing. We are building a mini-dynasty here and I feel blessed to have such great kids in my program.”
The publication also received awards for individuals and the content they produced from the 2023-24 school year. By entering this work at the end of a school year it’s judged throughout the summer and winners are presented at the fall convention. While they had multiple finalists only the top-five were placed while places six through ten are considered honorable mentions. Here is a list of those entries and their final placing:
2024 graduate Mazzy Warren – 1st place 2024 Design of the Year: Informational Graphics
2024 graduate Mazzy Warren – 4th place 2024 Design of the Year: Newspaper page/spread
2024 graduate Mazzy Warren – 5th place 2024 Design of the Year: Newspaper page/spread
2024 graduate Mazzy Warren – 5th place 2024 Portfolio of the Year: Designer of the Year
2024 graduate Austin Ikard – 3rd place 2024 Photos of the Year: Environmental Portrait
2024 graduate Austin Ikard -Honorable Mention 2024 Portfolio of the Year: Multimedia Journalist of the Year
2024 graduates Nick Wood, Mars Canepa, Noah Bihan, and Alex Edwards – 4th place Digital Story of the Year: Multimedia Feature Story
2024 graduate Ben Tillisch – Honorable Mention 2024 Story of the Year: Sports Story
2024 graduate Asher Hagan – Honorable Mention 2024 Portfolio of the Year: Artist of the Year
2024 graduates Noah Bihan, Nick Wood, Austin Ikard, current senior Slyder Degalia, and current junior Will Olenick – Honorable Mention 2024 Digital Story of the Year: Sports Story
“It feels good to be recognized for this achievement,” Online Managing Editor Will Olenick said. “Big shout out to Austin Ikard for teaching me we wouldn’t have gotten this honorable mention without his support and help.”
Before the staff headed to the convention, individual entries for the NSPA 2024 fall convention Best-of-Show Individual honors were submitted for the work done since the start of the 2024-25 school year. Winners of awards for these contests were:
Junior Charlotte Schwarte – 4th place Design: Newspaper
Senior Bentlee Toland – 5th place Design: Newspaper
Junior Liberty Pittman – 8th place Reporting: News Story
“I was really surprised but very excited and proud of my work,” Entertainment Editor Bentlee Toland said. “It was nerve-racking walking up to get my award but I’m extremely grateful that I got the opportunity to do so.”
Along with work from the beginning of the year that individuals did, the first issue of the Dispatch for the 2024-25 school year was also submitted for the fall conventions NSPA best-in-show competition in the category of newspaper/newsmagazine. This is the fifth straight convention that The Dispatch placed second in the country for papers that were represented at the convention. The Dispatch has placed in the best-of-show competition at every convention the staff has attended. This marks seven out of eight conventions in a row where the Dispatch was 2nd place behind the Van Nuys High School publication, the Mirror.
“I was proud of us because I know we worked hard on that paper,” Feature Editor Charlotte Schwarte said. “I was excited to keep up with the cycle of winning that specific award.”
At every convention whether it’s fall or spring students can be registered to compete in onsite competitions that range from writing, editing, and video production, hosted by the Journalism Education Association, called the National Student Media Contests. These contests are difficult and are timed. Students listen to a speaker for 30 minutes and are handed a piece of paper with further information on the speaker or the topic they will need to write about. They are then given 10-15 minutes to ask the speaker questions, followed by around an hour to write their story which is capped at 350 words. Three of the eight Dispatch staff members at the convention won individual awards for writing.
Senior Isabella Verette – Honorable Mention in Feature Writing (top 15% of more than 80 contestants)
Junior Liberty Pittman – Excellent in News Writing (top 10% of more than 100 contestants)
Junior Charlotte Schwarte – Superior in Sports Writing (one of just 2 superiors given, top 2 of over 60 contestants). Schwarte is just the 5th Dispatch staffer to win a superior in these contests.
“Honestly when I was writing my story I did not feel confident at all and felt like it was one of the worst things I’ve written,” Pittman said. “When I saw I got an award for it, it honestly really boosted my confidence. When I found it was only my spelling that affected my score, I felt even stronger in my capabilities to write. It made me realize that me and the staff don’t give ourselves enough credit and as a publication, our writing and product is very strong.”
