Smoke Signal announced as a finalist for GSSPA Awards

GSSPA tweets out award finalists with winners to be announced Oct. 30

Lauren Cohen and Allison Botwinick|September 14, 2017

William Rawson

Pictured above (from left): Jamie Ryu, Sarah Schmoyer, Curstine Guevarra, Jake Aferiat, Kyle Comito, Madison Gallo, Kayla Barry, and Lauren Cohen. The 2016-2017 Smoke Signal Editorial Staff presents their plaque for being named the GSSPA’s Distinuighed Journalism Program for New Jersey’s Division B at last year’s GSSPA Conference.

The Garden State Scholastic Press Association (GSSPA) is New Jersey’s student publication organization. Every fall, it holds a contest in which different student publications are awarded first, second, and third place, as well as honorable mentions, for a multitude of categories in print.

This fall is the first year the GSSPA is giving out awards for online media. It recently Tweeted the finalists for these online awards, and The Smoke Signal is a finalist for Student Podcast, Breaking News Story, Breaking Sports Story, Sports Package, and News Package. All of the finalists in the sports package category are from the Smoke Signal. The other categories are Broadcast Feature, Sports Broadcast, News Broadcast, and Feature Package.

This is only the first round of announcements for the award finalists. Later this month, the GSSPA is planning to announce the finalists for the print categories. Last year, The Smoke Signal won a total of 20 print awards, including being named a Distinguished Journalism Program New Jersey’s Division B.