South’s yearbook, Etruscan, will be inducted into the National Scholastic Press Association’s (NSPA) Hall of Fame on April 27, 2013, according to Grace Christiansen, NSPA contest and critique coordinator.
NSPA provides an opportunity for publications to be graded against a professional journalists’ rubric. According to yearbook adviser Brenda Field, any publication wanting to make it into the Hall of Fame has to win 10 All-American honor ratings, or ‘perfect scores’, consecutively within an 11-year span.
“[The All-American honor is] a first place award, but then it also has to have marks of distinction in at least four of the five major categories,” Field said.
The NSPA website says that in order to win an All-American honor rating, judges comment and score publications in categories such as coverage, writing and design.
According to the site, the composite score from all sections gives the publication an honor rating ranging from Third Class to All-American.
Senior Casey Chiappetta, Etruscan co-editor in chief, thinks that Etruscan has been inducted into the Hall of Fame because of South’s interesting student body.
“I think we want to put out the best book possible, and we want the book to showcase both our talents and the school’s talents,” Chiappetta said. “We’re only really doing the school justice with our book. I don’t think GBS could have been done justice with any less of a quality.”
Chiappetta also believes that the staff’s hard work has contributed to Etruscan’s induction into the Hall of Fame. According to Chiappetta, when she was doing her first story for Etruscan, Kate Henning, South alumna and former Etruscan editor, sat down with her and went through her entire rough draft.
“For three hours we sat there and wrote my copy, wrote my captions, and I couldn’t have done that without her and her drive to put the best book forward,” Chiappetta said. “And I think having that experience makes me want to put every copy that we read and that we write to be the best version possible into that book.”
According to Field, Etruscan’s main goal is not to win awards. Rather, it is to reflect the events that occurred throughout the year so that 10 or 20 years down the road, former students can accurately remember South.
“Awards like this are icing on the cake,” Field said. “The best [day] of the year is always distribution day when we get to see the book in the hands of the rest of the students in the school.”
Senior Elizabeth Quinones, Etruscan co-editor in chief, believes that the induction will have an overall positive influence on the yearbook staff.
“[The induction] makes us work harder because we have set our standards so high,” Quinones said. “We want to keep that standard and keep proving ourselves and making our book better than it is in the past.”
