The Southwest Shadow has become a finalist in the online Pacemaker Award, one of the most prestigious honors in high school journalism.
“As a first-year member, I didn’t really understand much about journalism or the Southwest Shadow,” sophomore Truong Phan said. “However, as I got to learn more about journalism and how professional the Shadow is, I feel that being a finalist is deserved.”
This is the newspaper’s ninth placement as a finalist in the pacemaker award in a row, and an actual victory would be the sixth for the high school newspaper.
“I definitely feel that we could win the award. We have an amazing advisor that makes sure we’re on task and many intelligent journalists,” Truong said. “I just hope the judges see that.”
![Painting their pumpkins during FCCLA’s annual pumpkin painting meeting, juniors Aki Javier and Rizzael Maniego work alongside each other. The members were able to choose their own designs when decorating their pumpkins. “I wanted to win the best pumpkin [award],” Maniego said. “I tried painting Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and I feel that it turned out pretty good despite the short amount of time we were given.”](https://southwestshadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/club_preview_nov_11.jpg)
