Senior and Echo editor-in-chief Molly Schochet said she was ecstatic after hearing Echo won a National Pacemaker award. 

“I’m really proud of all of the work that all the staffers from last year put in, and it especially makes me very proud of the chiefs from last year,” Schochet said. “It’s really exciting because we were not in school for a lot of (last year) and we were still able to make a really cool newspaper.”

The National Pacemaker Award, given by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), was given to 28 high school publications across the country. Echo adviser Lori Keekley said the Pacemaker Award is the most prestigious honor given to high school publications.

“It’s the highest award that NSPA bestows on people or gives out,” Keekley said. “To be a finalist is really the equivalent of a team winning state in essence.”

Senior business editor Oliver Smith said the award was well-earned due to the amount of effort put in by Echo staffers.

“So many people put (in) so much time, so many late nights, so much extra work to go above everybody else, so I definitely feel like we earned it,” Smith said.

Keekley said the award is all the more impressive due to the adversity that the publication dealt with during distance learning.

“It’s a great recognition of what they’ve done especially during a pandemic, even some of the schools that were finalists were in person before we were,” Keekley said. “That they were able to do last year really was amazing.”

Along with the publication-wide award, photo editor Ayelet Prottas, assistant photo editor Henry Harper and one of last year’s editor-in-chiefs Talia Lissauer were given individual awards. The group ranked fourth in the nation by NSPA in the category of Photo Slideshow for their photo gallery of the walkout in light of the murder of Daunte Wright. Prottas said she appreciated the chance to cover the walkout and is honored to receive such a high award.

“It’s really cool that we got the opportunity to cover the walk out because it’s something that’s really important in our community and in our world right now. It was really cool that we got national recognition for something that happened at our school,” Prottas said.

According to Keekley, she hopes the publication continues to strive for excellence in order to leave an impact on future staff members.

“I always say, especially to the editors, ‘What’s your legacy going to be? What are you leaving for the next generation?’ Every one of those awards that Echo has received, I think it builds on the group before,” Keekley said. “That’s what’s really cool about this is just that continuation, that legacy of people still making an impact even after they’re gone.”