Every scholastic year, high school newspapers from across the nation that use School Newspapers Online compete to be named a Distinguished Site, a challenging and competitive process involving six individual awards a newspaper must complete. The West Side Story Web Staff was named a SNO Distinguished Site on March 7, becoming the third school in Iowa and the 25th school in the nation to achieve this award.

Each award, called a badge, has its own list of activities and goals the newspaper must complete in order to be named a Distinguished Site. The badges include Best of SNO awards, Story Page Excellence, Audience Engagement, Multimedia, Continuous Coverage and Site Excellence. From creating smooth and professional videos to posting on West Side Story’s social media accounts every day for four consecutive weeks, these are just two examples of what makes up a SNO Distinguished Site.

Camille Gretter ’23 is the current Online Editor-in-Chief for the West Side Story. “Everyone on this staff works so hard every day, and we like to remind ourselves it is not all about the awards, but this achievement is definitely something that we will all be proud of for a long time,” Gretter said.