The Wildcat Chronicle took home a national win in Kansas City at the Journalism Education Association conference, held April 4-7, as well as three individual awards.

The Pacemaker is a national award given out by the National Scholastic Press Association that recognizes the best student media outlets in online, print, yearbook and magazine. The Wildcat Chronicle entered the contest earlier this year after staff set goals for the publication that included providing daily content, adding a dedicated multimedia section, and introducing new features, such as “wtw WEGO?” on Instagram, and the Athlete of the Week spotlight.

The Chronicle was named a finalist in the competition two months ago, and was one of just three schools in the state of Illinois to be recognized.

Twelve Pacemaker winners were recognized at the JEA National High School Journalism Convention this past weekend: although recipients were called in random order, the Wildcat Chronicle was the first to be named in the online category. The win marks the first time in the paper’s history that it has been recognized in the national competition.

“It is an honor to be a part of the best student newspaper website in the entire nation. None of this would have been possible without the contributions of our wonderful staff, every single one of whom dedicated countless hours towards ensuring that the Pacemaker award is something we can call ours. With this achievement, the Chronicle team has put West Chicago on the map for the entire country to see,” Managing Editor Dhanveer Gill, a senior, said.

While at the conference, several students competed in individual events at a national level: some for writing, and others in the multimedia realm. In the video section, seniors Brandon Heath competed in the video package editing, and Managing Editor Karidja Monjolo participated in broadcast anchoring. Monjolo received an “Excellent” distinction.

“I’ve never competed in a broadcast competition but I definitely think throughout the year, I’ve had practice in that area with “wtw WEGO?” but still I walked in there not knowing what to expect. Overall, I felt confident in my performance, but when they called my name for ‘excellent’, I was surprised and extremely proud of myself, and the work I had done,” Monjolo said.

Three seniors competed in photo competitions as well: Emily Ziajor in sports action photos, Sebastian Alarcon in sports feature photos, and Editor-in-Chief Sasha Baumgartner in photo storytelling. Ziajor and Baumgartner both received an honorable mention for their contributions.

“I honestly wasn’t expecting to get an award in the sports action category. I genuinely felt just a rush of fulfillment because I finally achieved an award at a national level. After putting in so much work, and going to these events, and learning from my mistakes, I finally got it,” Ziajor said.

In the writing events, Gill competed in editorial writing, Reviews Editor Michael Birdsell in review writing, freshman reporter Dania Cureno in news writing and Features Editor Alexa Morales in feature writing. The writing competitions were timed and competitors were given a prompt to write their articles.

“Going in, I was really nervous especially because I was running late after getting locked out of my room, but once I got to the competition room, I saw how calm it was. Although I didn’t take a win this time, I had another type of win: I made friends from the first five minutes you get before the competition starts. So I would say overall it was a successful competition, and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Morales said.