News Flash: Niles West Earns Press Honors

More and more people are getting their news online these days, and students at Niles West High School in Skokie are no different. But now the school can take pride in knowing that it is getting award-winning news.

The Niles West News, the online site by the school's student journalists, went live last fall, replacing its printed version. First-time faculty adviser Evelyn Lauer started with an entirely new staff, including editor-in-chief Rozy Kanjee.

Last month, her group took home an Online Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association. The operation also won the “Best in Show” award in the Publication Website Large School category during announcements at the National High School Journalism Convention in Anaheim, CA.

Lauer, who worked on her high school newspaper, said she was aware of the Pacemaker awards–sometimes called the Pulitzers of high school journalism. When she became the adviser to the Niles West News last summer and after getting approval to move exclusively online, Lauer told prinicipal Kaine Osburn that she hoped to win one for the school in three years.

“I’m so proud of these kids, I could cry,” Lauer said the young journalists accomplishment.

So is Kanjee, who said she almost wishes she wasn’t graduating so she could see how the site develops next year.

“This is very, very humbling,” she said.

While there was some opposition to ending the printed newspaper, Lauer said, it is important for students to prepare to enter the world in which they live, not the world of decades past.

“To pretend people aren’t getting their news online is doing the students a disservice,” she said.

Student journalists update the Niles West News site (www.nileswestnews.org) every day, uploading between one and five new stories. The interactive site allows students, teachers and other readers to comment.

“There are very few schools who are doing what we are doing,” she said.

With its mix of timely news and features, it has become a daily online stop not only for students, but also for teachers and administrators, said District 219 Superintendent Nanciann Gatta.

“I look at it almost every day,” she said. “If you want to know what’s going on at West, that’s where you look.”

If all goes according to plan, Niles North High School in Skokie will duplicate its cross-town rival's transition. Lauer plans to spend time this summer helping Niles North develop its online news site.