The St. Louis American received two awards for its Newspaper In Education (NIE) program, both national and international.
The National Newspaper Association (NNA) awarded The American first place among all large non-daily newspapers in the United States for its 2015 Newspaper In Education program. The award was part of the Newspaper And Education contest hosted by the NNA, which highlights newspaper/school partnerships and “supports teachers in their use of the newspaper in their classroom.”
This marks the third consecutive year – all three years of the program’s existence – that The American has won national first place honors for its NIE program from the NNA, the largest newspaper association in the country, with more than 2,200 member newspapers.
The American won first place for both its “Educational Support” and “Partnerships.” Judges stated The American has an “excellent, well-organized program” and that the NIE pages in the newspaper had “outstanding, inviting content” and were “graphically the best in this category.”
The judges also noted the paper’s “excellent and impressive partnerships with local business sponsors.”
Also this week, it was announced that The American received the international Silver World Young Reader Prize in the News In Education category for its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program from the World Association of Newspapers. This award will be presented at a ceremony in Mumbai, India in September. The top prize went to Het Belang van Limburg (Belgium).
“The newspaper is not just informing, but inspiring these young people to try things, and to become scientists or astronauts themselves,” the jury wrote. “Great program with good funding that particularly encourages minority, low-income students. This innovative program demonstrates how much newspapers can do in helping children with their education by making it fun and interesting.”
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers is the global organization of the world’s press, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.
The STEM portion of The American’s NIE program is currently funded, in part, through corporate sponsors including Ameren, Boeing, Centene, Emerson, Monsanto and World Wide Technology (WWT).
According to David Steward, founder and chairman of WWT, “It is important for kids to learn STEM education at a young age, for St. Louis, for the economy, and quite frankly, for our business. This program has been a great return on our investment.”
In the 2014-2015 academic year, The American expanded its NIE program to reach directly more than 7,000 elementary students and nearly 300 teachers at seven area school districts: St. Louis Public Schools, Normandy, Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood, Jennings, Riverview Gardens and University City. It is the largest free NIE program in the Midwest and one of the largest free NIE programs in the nation, among all dailies and weeklies.
St. Louis American publisher Donald M. Suggs said, “This national and international recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication to educating our youth of everyone involved in our NIE program, including our staff, teachers, administrators, students and parents.”
In particular, Suggs cited The American’s NIE team, led by 22-year veteran NIE manager Cathy Sewell.
“We want to help open the minds of these young people to their potential,” Suggs said. “We are excited about continuing to grow the program, and want to touch and positively affect as many young lives in their classrooms and their homes as we can.”
Since the program’s inception, The American has added several subject areas to its NIE program, including a Healthy Kids page (sponsored by Ascension, BJC and St. Louis College of Pharmacy) and the Kidvisors financial literacy page (sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors). The NIE program also includes other unique series such as Black History, anti-bullying and recycling education.
“It’s a complete-academic-year program,” Suggs said.
The program includes a year-long syllabus, dozens of resources for teachers, professional development and teacher training, guides on how to use the newspaper in the classroom and a monthly e-newsletter for teachers and administrators.
These awards coincide with the upcoming launch of the fourth academic year of The American’s NIE program, which has expanded dramatically since it was introduced in 2012. The program’s material, which is printed in all 70,200 copies of The St. Louis American, will appear again in August for the 2015-16 academic year. It is also available on stlamerican.com.
For more information, visit stlamerican.com and click on “Newspaper In Education” or email nie@stlmerican.com. All kids’ pages run in the entire press run of The American, as well as on stlamerican.com. All readers are encouraged to enjoy and learn from the kids’ pages.
