The Campus Current made a short list of finalists for the Associated Collegiate Press’s prestigious Pacemaker award. 

The award, in the community college category, is for issues of the student newspaper from the 2019-2020 school year under Editors-in-Chief Amber Nathan and Christian Richey.

“It’s an honor,” Campus Current’s faculty adviser, Sharon O’Malley, said. “The Pacemaker is kind of like college media’s Pulitzer Prize. It’s the most prestigious prize that you can win.”  

Judges base their selection of winners on content, quality of writing, leadership, photography and graphics.  

Campus Current was a selected as a finalist for the 2018-2019 Pacemaker as well. Alexandra Radovic, now a journalism student at the University of Maryland, was editor-in-chief. 

Amber Nathan, a third-year communications student who served as editor in fall 2019, said she felt “excited and pretty proud” when she learned about the honor. 

“I worked incredibly hard when I was editor-in-chief of Campus Current,” Nathan said. “I really feel that I went above and beyond, as I do with anything that I set my mind to. I feel that the position as a finalist was well-deserved.” 

Nathan said she her “amazing work ethic” contributed to the success of the Campus Current under her leadership. 

“I really tried to set the example of meeting my deadlines, and I encouraged my staff to do the same,” Nathan said. “I also feel that I brought my love of perfection to the paper. I always wanted my stories to be the best they could be.” 

Nathan said her advice to the student journalists who work on Campus Current this semester is to “take the work seriously. Having a portfolio of published clips is going to be beneficial no matter what job you’re going into.” 

O’Malley said the editors’ commitment to quality journalism contributed to the success of the paper during the two years Campus Current was a Pacemaker finalist. 

“We get a lot of people from different majors who are just trying journalism out for a few months and then leave, but from 2018 to 2020, we got people who were committed student journalists and they just did amazing work,” O’Malley said.  “Both of those years were dream years for the paper and as a faculty adviser, it was an honor and a delight to work with those students.”