Helios won its third national award for its 2022-2023 yearbook during a Kansas City journalism convention earlier this month.

“I was shocked at that; it was definitely a pleasant surprise,” said Helios adviser Lindsay Safe, who attended the convention’s awards ceremony to accept the Pacemaker plaque from the National Scholastic Press Association [NSPA]. “I’m just so thrilled for them; they work really hard, but the kids that really put their heart and souls into it aren’t here — it’s almost bittersweet.”

Besides Helios, the NSPA named 21 other high school Yearbook Pacemaker winners — two others being from California — of the 47 finalists announced back in December.

The Pacemaker entries were evaluated by six judges from different states who have all advised Pacemaker-winning publications, according to the NSPA website’s top yearbooks announcement. The NSPA did not specifically explain what stood out from each yearbook at the awards ceremony held on Saturday, April 6, the last day of the convention that began on Thursday, April 4.

Safe credits the success of last year’s yearbook, titled “Honestly Who Says We Can’t?” to the striking colors and notable title featured on the front cover, as well as the eye-catching bold aspects on each individual page.

“I think the theme is really incredible in that it’s a play on words; ‘Honestly Who Says We Can’t?’ but it’s really ‘Honestly We Can,’” Safe said. 

Just like her adviser, Helios editor-in-chief [EIC] senior Tiffany Elnitiarta said she was surprised yet pleased about the yearbook’s achievement when Safe revealed the plaque from her bag to announce Helios won the award.

“When we came to school [on Tuesday, April 9] and saw it in class, I was really shocked and super excited,” said Elnitiarta, who as a Coverage editor last year led a team of new staffers through the entire production process and their several assigned pages. “It also slipped my mind that it was being announced at that conference, so it felt like it came out of nowhere, but I’m super happy and proud of last year’s staff and editors.”

Safe said the judges could have also recognized the simple details on each page as well as the hard work the staff put into them.

“The way they carried it out is just really great, making some of the words bolded and some of the words outlined; it actually is pretty spectacular,” she said. “It definitely wasn’t easy, but I think in the long run, it was definitely worth it.”

With Helios winning Pacemaker plaques for yearbooks produced in 2008, 2019 and 2023, the EIC wanted to produce another award-winning annual for her final year.

“I definitely felt some pressure, especially because I have been on the staff since my freshman year,” Elnitiarta said. “All of the yearbooks that I have worked on have been awarded finalists by national journalism organizations, so having this goal in mind has really motivated us this year.”

ACCOLADE, HELIOS RECEIVE SILVER CROWNS

Five. 

That’s the same number of Silver Crown awards The Accolade and Helios have earned over the years from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association [CSPA], another national organization based in New York that evaluates high school publications.

At the 100th CSPA convention in New York on Friday, March 15, the organization awarded The Accolade with a Silver Crown (the publication previously took home a plaque in 2006, 2020, 2022 and 2023). This is now its second time winning this award in the hybrid news category, which includes print issues and online stories from the 2022-2023 school year.

The publication has yet to claim the highest level of award, a Gold Crown.

“I told my staff that even though we didn’t get a Gold Crown this year, it will only make us hungrier to get one next year or hopefully at least before I retire,” said Accolade adviser Tommy Li, who has overseen the journalism program during each year CSPA has nominated The Accolade as a Crown finalist. “Nevertheless, I’m still very proud of the staff from the last school year and their dedication to producing Los Angeles Times-quality work.”

The Accolade was one of 25 high school publications across the country to receive the award in the hybrid news category for this past school year. It was also one of six California schools and one of three from Southern California to earn a Silver Crown; The Accolade was the only Orange County publication to receive a Crown nomination when the list was released last December.

“It was such a great surprise being recognized by such a prestigious association,” said EIC senior Jaimie Chun, who as managing editor last year helped the editor-in-chief oversee the production of the six newspaper issues and one magazine. “Seeing our hard work get recognized is always exciting to see; so much of the credit goes to the editors last year who just did such an amazing job with their layouts and stories on their page.”

Despite not getting a Gold Crown, Chun said she hopes efforts from this year’s staff would lead to reaching that ultimate goal of obtaining the highest award from the CSPA.

“This year, I’m hoping that our in-depth coverage and new layout style can bring us closer to getting a Gold Crown,” she said.

Despite 2022-2023 being an award-winning school year — The Accolade won a Pacemaker in the print newspaper category at the fall NSPA national journalism convention in Boston — web EIC senior Susie Kim said she recalled several hardships last year.

“For print, I remember being really stressed and pressured as we entered the last few hours before submitting the paper; but we still pulled it off, and I’m really proud of our staff for that,” Kim said. “The same thing goes for our online stories, and this is something that I tried to improve upon this year as the web EIC; a lot of our critiques were regarding the frequency and consistency of posting, so I hope that our staff next year can also work on that so that we can win a Gold Crown.” 

At the same awards ceremony, Helios also received a Silver Crown for last year’s yearbook after previously winning Silver Crown plaques in 2006, 2013, 2021 and 2023. Unlike The Accolade program, Helios has won two Gold Crowns in 2004 and 2020.

“I was really excited to be awarded the Silver Crown award,” Elnitiarta said. “The 2023 yearbook was the third book that I have worked on, and to see all of our hard work pay off and be awarded this honor was something that I am really proud of.”

Although the publication also didn’t receive a Gold Crown, the EIC said she’s not disappointed, especially since a month later the yearbook won a Pacemaker from another organization.

“Both awards that the book received are a very big honor, and I am also so proud of our staff for receiving the CSPA Silver Crown,” she said.

Safe said she isn’t focused on getting the trifecta — a third Gold Crown — for this year’s annual.

“The biggest goal for us is always to produce something that the students will love,” the yearbook adviser said. “The awards come from just doing that; it’s just recognition for a job well done.”

ACCOLADE, HELIOS WIN AWARDS AT ORANGE COUNTY COMPETITION

Both publications had staff who competed in the annual Orange Journalism Education Association’s [OCJEA] write-off contest on Saturday, Feb. 24, at Fullerton College. During the awards ceremony at the end of the day, The Accolade took home two Best of Show plaques: one to recognize the online news website — beating out three other entries from schools with 26 or more staff members — and another to honor one of its podcasts that earned the highest score against two other entries.

“News section does a good job in offering informative stories that are actually news — not just fluff or event coverage,” wrote the judge who evaluated the website’s content. “Publishing dates are varied and not all on one date but could be a little more frequent — still the value of the stories and multimedia balances this out. 

“Good use of multimedia and interactive content in the school renovation series.”

The “Netflix and ‘Grill’ing with Paul Dergarabedian” podcast was produced by Feature editor senior Stacy Kim and Arts & Entertainment editor junior Faith Jung, who also won a third-place trophy in critical review writing.

“The podcast was a great listen,” wrote one of the two judges. “I think it very much fit the audience of high school students. I was interested listening myself and did not have trouble losing focus on the topic.”

For Best of Show Print, The Accolade placed second out of six other schools’ entries for its December “Recovery” magazine issue. Woodbridge’s Golden Arrow magazine got the Best of Show plaque.

“Stories are well-written overall,” the content judge wrote about The Accolade’s specialty magazine. “Artwork is fabulous. The illustration for the story on allergies — wow!”

But the design judge cited some concerns in the “Headlines, Subheads, Decks” part of the score sheet.

“Inconsistent use of headline fonts throughout but very much seen in the use of pull quotes,” the judge wrote. “I believe I saw three or four different fonts used for pull quotes. Consistency is key.”

For the write-offs part of the event, students worked under a time constraint to produce mock articles or newspaper layouts assigned by the competition organizers. The participants’ work is then critiqued and ranked by judges who are either current or retired journalists or journalism professors in college.

The following staff members also won individual awards: 

• First place news writing, Susie Kim
• Second place feature writing, Spotlight co-editor junior Alexxa Berumen
• Second place newspaper layout, assistant Arts & Entertainment editor junior Nathan Lee
• Sixth place editorial writing, Spotlight co-editor junior Seowon Han
• Sixth place news writing, News editor junior Justin Pak
• Superior novice news writing, copy editor sophomore Nicole Park
• Excellent novice news writing, assistant business manager sophomore Aashna Dialani
• Excellent novice news writing, staff reporter junior Jenna Kim
• Honorable mention novice news writing, staff reporter sophomore Natasha Niazi

“I placed sixth last year, and [I] didn’t think I did any better, so it was a pleasant surprise to have won first place and the perfect cherry-on-top for my last OCJEA competition,” Susie Kim said. “I’m really proud of all the other staff members who placed in the Top 10, and I think it was just another opportunity for us as The Accolade to prove ourselves as one of the best high school publications in the nation.”

The web EIC said she was also proud to see the online news website come out on top in Best of Show.

“It was really rewarding because I knew Portola was one of our biggest rivals ever since I was in Journalism 1 during my freshman year,” she said. “One of my goals this year as web editor-in-chief was to beat Portola, especially after knowing we lost to Portola in a tiebreaker last year, so I’m really proud I’ve accomplished this.”

Helios received second place behind Portola High School’s yearbook team in the OCJEA Yearbook Sweepstakes category, which combines scores from each category and rewards the school with the highest total, and the following staff members also received awards in the competition:

• Second place yearbook copy, juniors Meerae Lee and Maddison Pech
• Second place yearbook design, juniors Meerae Lee and Maddison Pech
• Sixth place feature photography, junior Samantha Ro

“I was very surprised and happy [to place] second out of everyone else,” Pech said. “After I received the award, I was proud of myself for getting picked to participate in OCJEA and being able to see my designs flourish from the start of the year.”