Huntley High Journalism Class in Awe of Pacemaker Award

Joe Cristo remembers when the Huntley Voice’s online edition went live last fall.

“It was horrendous, really bad,” said Cristo, online managing editor. “The first part of the year, it was horrific.”

The Voice relaunched in January, going from horrific to winning the National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker award, considered the “Pulitzer Prize” of high school journalism.

The Pacemaker award sat in Dennis Brown’s classroom this week as the journalism class basked in the glow of winning a national award while continuing to work on its award-winning online edition.

“I’m just amazed, I just can’t get over it,” said Digital Editor-in-Chief Michael Geheren.

He got the idea to put the newspaper online after doing work for Patch.com and the Chicago Tribune. He felt the high school journalism class was lacking in real-world experience, specifically online media. The class wasn’t preparing everyone for the future of journalism, he said.

He started working to create the website during the blizzard of 2011. Geheren bought the domain name and sent his ideas to Brown.

He had to convince Brown about the idea. Brown didn’t know a lot about web design or online media. But he liked Geheren’s design and felt it was something to explore.

The two received support from Principal Dave Johnson then took the idea to the Consolidated School District 158 board last year for approval.

Brown restructured the class and they launched in the fall.

No one could’ve guessed the site was a mess by just looking at it, Geheren said. But the class was a mess, he said. What the class did was begin staffing separate editors for the online edition and the print edition.

“Online, it’s fast-paced,” Cristo said. “We are more of a magazine for the print side.”

Cristo thought it would take a few years for everything to come together. He’s already looking to next year. “There’s a lot we need to do,” he said.

“I go on the website and go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we did it in our first year,’ ” said photographer Mike Krebs, a junior. “It was cool that all that work we put in over the winter paid off.”

Krebs covered sports for the site, taking photos at games, editing and posting them on the site. He finds he can do more with his color prints on the website.

Kierra Renwick is one of three online editors, with Yazmin Dominguez and Holly Baldacci, who handle reporters, assign stories, edit and make sure beats are covered. Everyone does articles, videos and live coverage.

“It gets very stressful, but it helps to have deadlines,” Renwick said. “If there weren’t any deadline. it wouldn’t get done. This class has taught me I can’t procrastinate.”

It also has taught many students teamwork.

“Everybody contributed. The editors do a lot of planning. Geheren created the shell; without everybody, it wouldn’t be filled with anything,” Krebs said.

Geheren and Brown credit the class for their hard work and determination to get the online edition off the ground. It’s been a collaborative effort, Brown said.

Juniors Jackie Zaprzalka, a photographer, and Omo Tseumah, a staff writer, agreed that everyone worked hard. Zaprzalka cried when she heard about the award.

“It’s a great time for everyone on staff. I’m just proud of everyone else,” Tseumah said.