Nomination Deadline: Feb. 16, 2018
Previous Golden Pen Award Honorees
Each year MIPA presents the Golden Pen Award to an outstanding adviser of a scholastic publication. To win the award, an adviser is judged according to documentation and evidence provided by students. Nominations are submitted electronically via MIPA’s contest submission system.
A Golden Pen Award nominee must be currently teaching/advising at a junior high, middle or high school. The number of years of service to student media staffs as well as consistent excellence of a newspaper, yearbook, magazine, video program or news website advised by the candidate will be considered. Also a factor is the contribution to scholastic journalism beyond the school. Receiving a Golden Pen is similar to being named “Coach of the Year.”
To nominate an adviser for this award, the students must submit a portfolio to the MIPA office that includes:
- Information about the adviser and staff.
- A letter of nomination from the editor of the student publication (newspaper, yearbook or magazine) that includes reasons for the nomination and a description of the nominee’s responsibilities for staff(s) and/or classes.
- Documentation to promote the nominee which includes:
- listing of staff and publication awards, honors — state, national, regional;
- a listing of the adviser’s honors and level of involvement in related state and national professional organizations;
- citations of leadership and example set (these could be testimony from former students majoring in college journalism or former students who are professional journalists);
- description of the adviser’s role in the development and/or advancement of the present journalism program at your school.
- Letters of support from administrators, fellow teachers, former students, other advisers and knowledgeable parties.
- A picture of your adviser. This should be a high-resolution image of at least 200 dpi resolution — not an image taken from Facebook.
The MIPA office has nominations since 2012 on file. If you are re-nominating an adviser, a previous Golden Pen nomination might be a great place to start your work.
Winning this award gives credibility to the school’s journalism program and recognizes excellence in your school. It is a prestigious honor, reflecting an adviser’s long-term commitment to the highest standards of scholastic journalism.
Nominations and supporting documentation will be delivered to the judging committee of previous Golden Pen winners. The committee will select the honoree(s) based on the available evidence. The recipient and all of those nominated will be announced at the Spring Awards & On-Site Contests in April.