By: Landon Stark

The IHSPA (Iowa High School Press Association) awards schools for their ability to create an outstanding yearbook. Atlantic High School’s journalism department received the Award of Distinguished Merit for their 2011-12 book, The Javelin.

The Award of Distinguished Merit is the second highest award you can receive. There are five different awards a school can receive. The highest award is The Neubert Award,  named in honor of Mick Neubert, an outstanding journalism adviser from Grinnel High School. Those who received this award were deemed “exceptional in executing solid journalistic, photographic, and design principles.” The Award of Distinguished Merit is the second highest possible award a yearbook can receive.  This award is presented to publications that are solid journalistically, photographically, and graphically. These awards are above three lesser awards, which are the Award of Achievement, Award of Honor, and Award of Merit.

Upon receiving their award, AHS also received a packet showing how they were scored. Schools are evaluated on their staffs’ knowledge of design, and knowing what types of information others would like to see in a yearbook. AHS Javelin received either excellent or good in all categories graded.

AHS has participated in the IHSPA contest for the past two years. The first year they received an Award of Achievement, the third of the five levels. As the years continue AHS yearbook improves giving us a better ranking, and showing we really care about our school’s yearbook.

Receiving these awards are a great honor for AHS, even more for the journalism staff and those who helped with the yearbook. As journalists become more familiar with their jobs the yearbook will improve.