ODYSSEY Newsmagazine announced as 2020 NSPA Pacemaker finalist

The 2019-20 ODYSSEY Media Group staff poses at the 2020 Southern Interscholastic Press Association conference on March 7, 2020. The ODYSSEY Newsmagazine was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Pacemaker award, the National Scholastic Press Association’s highest honor, on Nov. 5. “I think any staff that receives a Pacemaker nomination is obviously doing work that is not only quality, but goes beyond the expectation of typical high school journalism,” ODYSSEY Media Group adviser David Ragsdale said. “They don’t call the Pacemaker the Pulitzer of high school journalism for no reason. Staffs that achieve that nomination, much less the actual designation, really go all in on the craft of journalism, making sure to represent their communities fairly, accurately and in a balanced fashion, so obviously a Pacemaker designation means someone’s doing something right.” Photo from ODYSSEY Media Group archives

The ODYSSEY Newsmagazine was announced as a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association’s highest award, the Pacemaker, in the Newsmagazine category on Nov. 5. This nomination is based on the ODYSSEY’s work during the 2019-20 academic year.

The Pacemaker is awarded annually to multiple high school publications based on several criteria. The ODYSSEY is one of 60 other newsmagazines from across the nation to be named a finalist. From this group, 24 winners will be announced on Nov. 21.

“Entries are judged by teams of professionals based on the following criteria: coverage and content; quality of writing and reporting; leadership; design; photography; and graphics,” the NSPA website states.

The ODYSSEY Media Group has received multiple Pacemaker nominations and awards through the years. The newsmagazine was named a finalist in 2009, 2011, 2016 and 2018, and was named a winner in 2011. The ODYSSEY website won Pacemakers in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018 and the iliad Literary-Art Magazine was named a Pacemaker in 2010.

ODYSSEY Co-Editor-in-Chief Naomi Hendershot, who served as the Managing Editor during the 2019-20 school year, believes the Pacemaker nomination recognizes the work of last year’s staff, especially after the academic year was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think it’s a nice sentiment to all the seniors who were on staff last year because it recognizes all the work that they did put in (since) we weren’t able to have a banquet at the end of the year for them to recognize all that work,” Hendershot said. “So it was a good feeling to know that our work didn’t go unnoticed from that year because little did we know that it would be the last year that (the seniors) were gonna be in-person together.”

Former ODYSSEY Editor-In-Chief Elena Gilbertson Hall, a Clarke Central High School class of 2020 alumna, believes that ODYSSEY is about telling the stories of the CCHS and broader Athens community.

“I think for me what made my work in ODYSSEY so meaningful was the opportunity to tell the stories of people in our community. Clarke Central and Athens are such diverse and interesting and important and vibrant communities that really deserve to have their stories told,” Gilbertson Hall said. “Getting to interview people, getting to hear people’s stories, that was one of my favorite parts of the job, (so) seeing the final product and seeing these people’s stories in print and seeing them excited about it and proud to be represented in our publication was really gratifying.”

Gilbertson Hall believes that ODYSSEY’s second 2019 issue, which the NSPA used to represent the ODYSSEY in the Pacemaker finalist announcement on their website, was an important part of the ODYSSEY’s work from that year.

“I think what’s important is that the magazine that the NSPA chose to highlight of our work last year was our second issue, and that is one where we really tried to represent Clarke Central. We highlighted Black history in Athens and we covered reparations in African American communities,” Gilbertson Hall said. “We had a big profile, our cover story, on a Black fashion designer at Clarke Central. I think (that issue) was one of our most representative of Clarke Central.”

ODYSSEY adviser David Ragsdale hopes that being named a Pacemaker finalist will inspire the current ODYSSEY Media Group staff and help them recognize the importance of their work.

“I hope that it inspires everybody to do their best work and to realize that the work has merit and value. It can’t just be a, ‘Hey we get an award in the Spring,’ and hope that everyone understands what we do,” Ragsdale said. “I think our kids have to understand that the work they do is vitally important and is held to such a standard that it gets nationally recognized.”

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