PENNSYLVANIA (special) – For local high school journalists, the quest to become a State Champion commenced once again when the Pennsylvania School Press Association opened up its Sixth Annual State Journalism Contests. On October 18, 34 students from southwestern Pennsylvania traveled to Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the hopes of advancing to the State Finals held at Penn State Main on March 25, 2020. PSPA President Paul Fantaski expressed his appreciation for several aspects about the event.

“It just amazes me how institutions like The Indiana Gazette and IUP truly advocate and super-support journalism in Pennsylvania schools. On behalf of PSPA, I simply must thank Hastie Kinter from the Gazette and everyone else who met over and over to make this all happen. Because of those efforts, 18 student journalists from outstanding southwestern PA schools have advanced to the State Championships.”

Contests involved literary design, photography, copywriting, sports-writing, editorial cartoon, broadcast media, and poetry talents. Only the top-scoring competitors in each Regional contest category qualified to attend the State Finals. PSPA proudly announces the following students as 2019-20 State Finalists:

• Bailey Hamilton - Yearbook Caption Writing - Kiski Area HS (tie for 1st)
• Rachel Helsel - Yearbook Caption Writing - Kiski Area HS (tie for 1st)
• Chandler McGuire - Yearbook Copy Writing - Kiski Area HS HS
• Eddie Fuhrer - Newspaper Sports Story Writing - Kiski Area HS HS
• Amber McGihon - Newspaper News Story Writing - Franklin Regional HS
• Debra Spaid - Newspaper News Story Writing - Purchase Line Area HS
• Emmet Jamieson - Newspaper Feature Writing - Punxsutawney Area HS
• Luke Rainey - Newspaper Sports Story Writing - Penns Manor Area Jr./Sr. HS
• Brice Hoculock - Editorial Cartoon - Kiski Area HS
• Louise Bennett - Editorial Writing - Punxsutawney Area HS
• Sean Adamski - Literary Magazine Poetry - Kiski Area HS
• Alyssa Poleski - Literary Magazine Artwork - Kiski Area HS (tie for 1st)
• Jack Coleman - Literary Magazine Artwork - Kiski Area HS (tie for 1st)
• Anna Buggy - Broadcast Writing - Penns Manor Area Jr./Sr. HS
• Martina Webb - Yearbook Photography - Kiski Area HS
• Colin Matz - Newspaper Photography - Purchase Line Area HS
• Angelina Pampena - Broadcast Feature - Franklin Regional HS
• Olivia Ciotti - Broadcast News Package - Franklin Regional HS

The Pennsylvania School Press Association originated in 1925 and stands as one of the oldest scholastic journalistic organizations in the country. The group presently is headquartered in Manchester, PA and welcomes all to apply for membership. For details, visit www.paschoolpress.org.

The PSPA Board of Directors is proud to endorse Pennsylvania Senate Bill 806, the Free School Media Act. We're excited to see some remarkable progress towards New Voices legislation in our state. Our endorsement is below.

​Please read more and learn how you can get involved at the PA New Voices site.

We, the Pennsylvania School Press Association, are writing to express our sincere hope that you will join us in endorsing Pennsylvania’s New Voices legislation.

New Voices is a nonpartisan, grassroots, student-driven effort to create state-based student free press protections and to prevent retaliation against advisers who stand up for student free press rights. As of the spring of 2019, there are New Voices laws in 14 states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. New legislation has been introduced this year in 11 additional states.

New Voices protections are needed because, without them, school administrators can (and do) censor many student publications for “any reasonable pedagogical purpose” (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988). Censoring students not only quells their engagement in the life of their community, but sends a clear message that their voices are not valued and respected. 

Under current Pennsylvania code, school publications do have some protections, but we have found that many schools and their administrators may not follow this code. In order to ensure student First Amendment rights here in Pennsylvania, we need stronger protections for our students and their advisers. We need New Voices. 

In Pennsylvania, our own New Voices campaign has been underway since August 2018. After meeting with student journalists and their adviser last winter, Sen. Andy Dinniman (D) agreed to draft legislation. Through a collaborative effort between student journalists and advisers from across the Commonwealth, the bill was revised and ultimately drafted by Sen. Dinniman. Sen. Dinniman has since garnered the support of Senators Brewster (D), Muth (D), and Browne (R), who have signed on to co-sponsor the bill, now “Senate Bill 806: The Free School Media Act.”

While Sen. Dinniman is seeking more co-sponsors to ensure that the bill is picked up by a committee, your support can help. Contact your state senator to encourage them to support or even co-sponsor SB806, encourage your local media to do stories about the movement and to editorialize in favor of the bill, connect with other organizations who may be willing to endorse the bill, or simply connect with New Voices PA on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date.

We are hopeful that, with your support, we can pass legislation that not only protects student speech, but advisers’ jobs as well. 
​
In solidarity,
The Pennsylvania School Press Association Board of Directors

PSPA wants to see as many Pennsylvania student publications participate in summer critiques as possible! We're extending the 2019 critique deadline through July 31 for newspapers, online news, literary magazines, and broadcast. (We're already at capacity for spring delivery yearbooks.)

Submit your publications for critique today!

A few points to know about critiques:

• We've got amazing judges. All of our judges have both professional industry and scholastic journalism experience. They are committed to offering descriptive feedback in all evaluations. (We do our critiques in the summer months because our judges are generally a little less busy— because they have a lot to write and share!) Expect to learn a lot!
• Paid membership includes one publication critique for each school. Get your money's worth on the annual membership fee—you've got nothing to lose. PSPA is happy to complete additional publication critiques for the other publications at your school for $50 each.
• Your publication is only competing against itself in the critique process. Judges score each publication individually and not by comparison to other publications. Critique results are sent only to advisers—not to school administration or students. You determine the best ways to share feedback that will help your publication to grow.
  
• Summer logistics got you down? We know it can be tough to secure check requests or credit card payment from school business offices during the summer. Register for membership and submit your publications for critique even if payment won't come through until school starts up again. We won't release critique results until membership / critique fees are paid, but we don't want to wait to start the process!
• We introduced online news publications as a category in 2018 because so many of our Pennsylvania schools have online news sites. Help us to grow this category by sharing your publication for review!
  
• Critiques are not a fundraiser for PSPA. We pay our judges, we handle mailings, and we handle all the turnaround on getting the feedback to you. We're an all-volunteer organization, so we keep this cost as low as possible--much lower than what we've researched for some other state and national organizations. 
• First-year membership is free this year and does not include a critique, but first-year members are welcome to submit publications for critique at $50 each. 
• Top-ranked publications WILL compete! All publications earning GOLD recognition will be sent on to a new judge where your publication will compete against other GOLD publications to determine who wins the annual All-State Keystone Award in each category. ​See our 2018 Keystone winners.
  

Any questions? Please reach out and let us know!
We look forward to seeing the rest of our categories fill up for summer 2019...

Broadcast Critique Entry Form
Literary Magazine Critique Entry Form
Newspaper Critique Entry Form
Online Publication Entry Form

PSPA is excited to announce our new membership pricing for 2019-2020. Because we fundamentally believe that student journalism should be a part of every school, our board has discussed ways we might expand the reach of PSPA’s programs. Beginning in 2019-2020, we will offer $0 FIRST-YEAR MEMBERSHIP for new schools and for any schools that have not been a member of PSPA for the last three years.

First-year members are welcome to pay for a summer critique, or to have students participate in the regional Student Journalism Competitions. First-year members will also be included in all PSPA communications and support.

The only difference between first-year membership and returning membership is that no critiques or registration fees for SJCs are included as part of first-year membership. This allows our first-year members to approach PSPA’s services “a’la carte”— testing out our signature programs, and investing in what might best support your staffs.

Both levels of membership now include all publications at a school. So, once your school registers, please let us know about your newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine, student news website, broadcast program, and/or social media channels. We hope that advisers staff members from any and all publications will participate.

After the first year, if you find that PSPA’s programs boost and support your journalism staff, the annual $125 membership includes one summer publication critique and five student registrations for a regional SJC. You can purchase additional critiques and registrations as needed.

We understand that it can sometimes be a tough sell to build financial support for new school programs. We’re confident that after your first year of membership, you’ll know how PSPA can help the publications at your school, and you’ll have a strong case for continued funding of your school’s membership.

Questions? Please let us know. The registration deadline for schools to participate in our summer 2019 critiques is June 30.

PSPA is grateful to Norman Eberly Professor of Practice in Journalism Will Yurman of Penn State Bellisario College of Communications for taking photographs during our state SJC finals on Wednesday, March 27.

The video that was shared at the last session of the day is linked here, and we've selected a few of Yurman's photos in the album below. You can find the full album at this link. To share any of these photos in your publication or on social media, please credit Will Yurman / Penn State.