NSPA & ACP THROUGH THE DECADES

⊲ WORLDWIDE

2016 Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote, but Donald Trump gains 306 electoral college votes to Clinton’s 232 to make him the 45th president.

2017 President Trump withdraws the U.S from the Paris Climate Accord.

2018 An expelled student entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida, and opened fire — killing 17 people and wounding 17 others

2019 Donald Trump becomes the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

2020 Death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 300,000, by end of the year.

2021 Pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was voting to approve Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

2022 Queen Elizabeth II dies at the age of 96.

2020

New Pacemaker Awards

ACP expands its prestigious Pacemaker awards adding Broadcast, Business and Innovation competitions. In 2022, a Multiplatform Pacemaker competition is added reflecting the changing college media landscape. NSPA adds an Innovation Pacemaker in 2022.

Pandemic Cancels Conventions

The JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention, originally scheduled for April 16-18 in Nashville, Tennessee, is canceled because of the pandemic. NSPA hosts Minneapolis Live! to virtually present their awards. For the next two years, the following national scholastic and collegiate conventions are conducted virtually:

2020: Fall JEA/NSPA, Orlando, Florida

2020: Fall ACP/CMA, Atlanta

2021: Spring JEA/NSPA, Seattle

2021: Spring ACP, La Jolla, California

2021: Fall JEA/NSPA, Philadelphia

2021: Fall ACP/CMA, New Orleans

BOARD RESTRUCTURES, BYLAWS REVISED

After working on bylaw revisions for more than a year, a board committee led by Chuck Clark, Western Kentucky University, proposes changing the composition of the board, signing an affiliation agreement with the University of Minnesota and redefining investment policies. After approval, the president and president elect are elected from board membership for two-year terms rather than the chair of the UM journalism school permanently serving as the top executive.

2021

IN-PERSON EVENTS RETURN IN PHILLY

NSPA hosts the Philadelphia Storytelling Workshop as part of its Pacemaker Master Class series, marking the return of in-person scholastic journalism events. The workshop attracted approximately 625 attendees and fulfilled a contractual obligation with the Philadelphia Marriott, saving both NSPA and JEA thousands of dollars in penalties.

2022

< QUILL AND SCROLL MERGES WITH NSPA

Quill and Scroll, the international honor society for high school journalists, will joins the nation’s largest press association for high school journalists on July 1. The merger brings together two associations with historic service to scholastic journalism

100

Plus One

Back Together At Last

On March 3-5, 2022, in-person events returned with the ACP Spring National Media Conference, in Long Beach, California. Presenter Tamara Zellars Buck, Southeast Missouri State University, interacts with student journalists during her “No right-click allowed: How to publish without getting sued” session. Buck serves on the NSPA/ACP board of directors.

Delayed by the pandemic, NSPA/ACP celebrates its 100th anniversary during fall conventions in Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, with special recognition ceremonies for the Pacemaker 100 — the 100 scholastic and collegiate publications earning the most Pacemaker honors during the past 100 years. At the collegiate convention, ACP honors 101 journalism educators and advocates with its inaugural ACP Pioneer Awards.

WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN

Investigative journalist Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, has been a keynote speaker at fall conventions for both ACP and NSPA. He answers questions from student editors at the ACP Fall National College Media Convention, Oct. 20-23, 2016, in Washington, D.C. He also keynoted the 2014 JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention. In 2022, Woodward and Carl Bernstein both were keynote speakers at the ACP/CMA Fall National College Media Convention.

SNOWDEN SPEAKS FROM MOSCOW

On-site conventions bring together student journalists, advisers and speakers from across the nation, even overseas. In fall 2016, communications director Amber Billings recruited ACP keynote speaker Edward Snowden, expat digital whistleblower, who spoke remotely from Moscow.