Jefferson High School newspaper continues national award-winning run

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What makes an award-winning newspaper?

Is it its coverage of local issues, its willingness to hold debates on topical issues, or its chicken sandwich column that ends up developing a cult following?

For Jefferson High School’s newspaper, The Booster, it might be a combination of all three, plus a little bit more.

Earlier this year, Chuck Herber, an English teacher and adviser for The Booster newspaper, and his students were excited to discover that The Booster had been awarded a first-place award – its 23rd – from the American Scholastic Press Association.

The ASPA reviews hundreds of high school-level newspapers each year and provides them with feedback on how to improve their schools' publications. In order to receive a first-place award from the ASPA, a publication needs to earn at least 850 points out of 1,000 across six different categories.

The Booster earned 910 points, scoring a perfect score in two of the six categories, content coverage and general plan.

Since 1998, The Booster has submitted a year’s work for review by the ASPA judges and, excluding one year, they’ve always placed first.

“Out of those 24 years, one time, we received a second place, and the kids were just like, ‘This cannot happen again.’ At that point, we had won it for almost like 18 years, always first place,” said Herber.

But for Herber and his students, the purpose of The Booster isn’t meant to win awards. Their daily goal is to give a boost of joy to the students who read their papers.

“But at the same time, is that really what we're thinking about when we're writing? No. It's usually, ‘I got this story I really like, and I want to write about it.' And they’ll work on that,” he added.

“Honestly, it's not that important to us. We rather enjoy the moment and the things they are working on. We worry about that stuff later in the year.”

For many of the students at Jefferson, when they initially sign up to write for The Booster, it's not out of a desire to work for such a prestigious newspaper. Instead, in their words, “because I heard it was a fun class”.

“I initially joined the class because of Herber. Knowing him and how he makes the class fun,” said Eden Clugh, a columnist and reporter for The Booster.

When asked what drew Clugh’s interest in writing for The Booster, beyond her desire for a fun class, she talked about her appreciation for the paper’s ability to not be "boring."

“I initially picked up The Booster after seeing us (Jefferson’s First Edition Choir) in it, and also just knowing the history of The Booster," Clugh said. "It's not just a boring newspaper. It has like stories that have been written for us. Like Clare (Long)’s pancake review, and just reviews on things that are just like funny or you’ll see things that you won’t see in a normal newspaper. It's specifically directed at high schoolers, so it's not going to be boring.”

When it came to the sections in the newspaper, a few highlights that students made sure to mention, were the paper’s opinion section ‘Blue in the Face’ and the paper’s review columns.

The "Blue in the Face" section sees students debate two sides, one in favor and one in opposition, on a topical issue. Last year’s papers saw students debate the merit behind issues like book banning, Senate Bill 167 and the idea of minimum wage.

This year’s paper is no different, as it sees student wrestle with the idea of climate change.

“Ever since the industrial revolution, humanity has been spelling out its death sentence. According to NASA, global warming is ‘the long-term heating of the Earth’s surface… due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gases levels in Earth’s atmosphere,’” reads the intro to Ruth Naughton-Linett’s article in Sept. 15 issues of the Booster.

But beyond the paper’s opinion sections, what many of the students remembered as a highlight of last year’s paper was the then Editor-in-chief Charlie Long’s chicken sandwich year-long review column.

Over the span of 10 issues, readers joined Long on his journey to find Lafayette’s best chicken sandwich.

Within the first issue, Long had deemed Chic-fil-A’s sandwich as “excellent across the board," and many thought that it would be crowned the best sandwich by the end of the year.

And over the next eight issues, it had defeated each new combatant, from Burger King to Arby’s.

But in the last issue, the school was in for a surprise when Long declared that there was a new king, and it was Popeyes' chicken sandwich.

The moment was monumental, to the point that student reporters from this year's class referred to it as one of the best things from last year’s paper.

“It’s kind of a silly answer, but my brother’s chicken sandwiches review articles. It made me think of how personal the paper was because I knew the reporters. So, I got to read their thoughts and actually see them in person. It gave me that connection and it’s what I like about The Booster, it just full all of those thoughts of people you know,” said Clare Long, one of this year’s editor-in-chief.

But after reflecting on last year’s success, the students were asked how they plan on replicating the paper’s success.

“It’s going to be better than last year. We are going to write more articles than they did last year. We’re going to go more in-depth; we’re going to be more in touch with the people who are reading our newspaper and improve on what we did before,” said reporter Devlyn Paxton.

“When you see something that people are so passionate about, you kind of just get the energy off them and you just want to do better and succeed. So, with the responsibility that we might carry next year, it just makes us want to work hard and get good stories so people around the school can see our passion,” added reporter Jim Gomez.

“I want people to feel good when they read it. Have you heard the saying, when you feel good you look good. I want people that when they read the Booster, I want them to feel good when they read it, so they like, dang, I’m happy this is a part of our school.”

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Jefferson High School newspaper continues national award-winning run