The 2015-1016 staff of The Panther have now become finalists for a Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and a crown winner from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) , the highest award given by both organizations.

Last year, Christina Porcelli took over the yearbook after the departure of Michelle Moore and changes were made within how the yearbook was run.

“The theme focused around on the fact that the students decided they wanted to tell the real story of the year,” reading teacher Porcelli said. “Previous yearbooks glossed over events and just focused on clubs and the more popular people, so they decided they wanted to change that. So that was the biggest change that we had to make to the yearbook coverage.”

Current Co Editor-in-Chief Senior, senior Maddie Johnson was on staff last year and experienced the change in management.

“We completely threw out everything and started over. Building teams and going chronological is completely new and having technically skilled design and copy editors,” Johnson said.

During spring break members of the yearbook staff went to New York and were awarded a silver crown by CSPA.

“Most importantly, I hope we win. But I also hope we are able to gain new knowledge about what is trending and other things that will make our yearbook better for future classes,” senior team leader Lyndsey Tyl said.

NSPA will be held in Seattle, Washington where the staff will find out if they have won a Pacemaker, which is known as the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism.

“Amy, Maddie and I have pretty much heard about and dreamt about getting a Pacemaker since we were in seventh grade,” senior co editor-in-chief Hope Kurth said. “It’s really the highest award we could’ve gotten and it’s so great to receive it in our last year of yearbook with Porcelli.”

In regards to this year’s yearbook the staff hopes to continue to receive awards.