Every school year, the Co-Editors in Chief and Managing Editor of The A-Blast discuss and select where to submit the publication for nomination.

This past weekend, students from The A-Blast attended the National School Press Association’s National High School Journalism Convention in Anaheim, California.

After sitting through many journalism seminars and a long awards ceremony, The A-Blast came out on top for the Best of Show award in the broadsheet category. After a long year of hard work, journalism students were ecstatic about their first place award.

“Upon receiving the award, we as a staff felt validated in our efforts throughout the entire school year,” Editor in Chief Jude Nanaw said. “We continue to strive to report the news both in print and online and our ranking is just a bonus to us.”

In past years, the publication has consistently ranked in the top ten, with a fourth place ranking received last year. Led by seniors Jude Nanaw, Kim Laura and Casey Nguyen, the award felt especially great as this is only the second time The A-Blast has received the first place award in 25 years of submitting.

Co-Editors in Chief Nanaw and Laura chose one issue from this year to submit for consideration.

“We chose the January issue because we felt like that issue was very strong and the stories reflected our school’s students and what we stand for,” Laura said.

The head story for that edition written by Nanaw titled “Do we even care?” was a huge part in the success of The A-Blast, as the story incorporated student life along with a overarching issue in political awareness and activism. Additionally, The A-Blast is fortunate enough to have pages such as an In-Depth, Arts and International that most school don’t have otherwise.

Although it is supervised by Journalism teacher Alan Weintraut, The A-Blast is run by the student journalists, who chose and create the content, so they are the ones to congratulate for the award.

“Considering the amount of work and effort I see my fellow staff members put into this paper, it is nice to see that all of it has paid off,” Internationals Editor and senior Yabi Bereket said.