For the second year in a row, the Carmel High School HiLite newspaper Web site, www.hilite.org, has been named a finalist in the large-school division of the annual Pacemaker competition sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). On March 11, the NSPA announced 26 total finalists – 13 from schools with enrollments of 1,500 or more students and 13 from schools with enrollments of fewer than 1,500 students. The HiLite Online is the only school in Indiana to earn this recognition.

According to the NSPA Web site, Online Pacemaker entries are judged during the months of February and March by a judging team including professionals and educators with extensive online media experience, and they made their selections based on excellence in the following areas: content and coverage, site design, ease of navigation, interactivity/multimedia and writing and editing. For the first time, entries were divided into two categories based on school enrollment. The complete list of finalists can be found here.

From that list of 26 Web sites, the winners of the Pacemaker award, the highest honor the NSPA offers for publications, will be announced at the NSPA convention in Portland, OR on April 17. No further judging will take place.

The HiLite Online has performed well in previous years, earning Pacemakers in 2002, 2004 and 2009.

This year’s editors of the Web site are seniors Mike Jiang and Nishanth Samala. The editor in chief of the HiLite is senior Michelle Hu. Jim Streisel advises the HiLite.