The Rein, Metea Valley High School’s Yearbook Program, won a First Class Distinction Award from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) on Friday, Dec 5. This award is given to schools that have reached certain expectations of journalistic excellence. This award is one level below the highest possible distinction, the All-American Award.

“Every year we enter contests, and not necessarily for awards, but for their critique and the feedback that it gives us,” yearbook advisor Kristen DiGiorgio-Kadich said. 

The award is held by journalism programs that have high scores in specific areas such as coverage and content, writing and editing, design, and photography/ graphic design. 

“This is the highest distinction we have gotten in the history of the Metea yearbook, so it’s really exciting,” DiGiorgio-Kadich said.

Last year’s yearbook program had many returning members. These members used critiques from previous years to allow the final product to be of the best quality possible. This allowed a lot of different students to try and apply what they learned previously in a new format. 

“Each of them took that feedback from the previous national critique and then applied that to what they wanted in the book,” DiGiorgio-Kadich said. 

This year, the program only has one returning member, senior Ellie Mehar. It is her second year on staff as editor-in-chief of the program. With a completely new staff, Mehar has been using her skills from her previous year and implementing them into the staff this year. 

“We had a very unique situation last year, where we had a lot of returners, so I think we’re trying to carry that into this here, which is obviously a little bit more difficult, but our standards are still the same,” Mehar said. 

 The First Class Distinction Award is an exceptional achievement, and it is a great stepping stone for the future of The Rein.