The Pacemaker Award is one of the highest honors that a high school yearbook can receive. Issued by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), it is frequently referred to as the “Pulitzer Prize” of student media. It showcases the rigor and excellence of the work of middle school, high school, and collegiate yearbooks. 

Similarly, the Gold Crown Award, issued by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), is the highest honor given by CSPA and highlights the same rigor and excellence from yearbooks and journalism as a whole. Both awards are ways of honoring the work of students across the country who create yearbooks that encapsulate the memories of a school year and keep school pride high.

This year, the Rock Ridge High School yearbook staff won both the Pacemaker Award and the Gold Crown Award for the yearbook they created last year, the tenth edition of the Rock Ridge yearbook series known as “Genesis”. 

Yearbook Adviser Michelle Prince has a lot of pride in her staff for winning the awards. “I’m very proud of all the work the kids have done,” Prince said. “We felt that last year’s yearbook was really good, so I’m happy that that was validated, and it’s exciting to share with people who also understand the importance of it.” 

Editor-in-Chief junior Akanksha Kakarlapudi was excited to hear that she helped create an award-winning book. “It was really special because our work got recognized for an award, so that was really cool,” Kakarlapudi said. “It definitely set a lot of expectations for this year’s book and more books to come, but it was great knowing that [we] were part of making that book.” 

Prince, who did yearbook herself in high school, said that she had always hoped for the school to win an award like this. “We never make yearbooks for awards, [but] to win a Pacemaker and a Gold Crown in the same year was just extremely exciting,” Prince said.

The yearbook staff works around the clock to ensure that they are able to meet deadlines and submit their yearbooks in a timely manner. “Especially with prime-time deadlines when everything has to be submitted in one day, it’s a lot of pressure in making the book seem as good as it can be,” Kakarlapudi said. “This year, we had many work nights and just sitting in front of the computer a lot and putting away weekends for the book. It definitely wasn’t a free class as I had come to know, [but] I’m really glad I did join it.”

For Prince, the yearbook and the awards they have won embody what Rock Ridge is as a school and what the student body is capable of. “I think [the yearbook] speaks to the intelligence and creativity of our school; when we’re trying to tell the story of who we are, our reputation is generally focused on academics and the arts, and I think having an award-winning yearbook combines the two strengths,” Prince said.

This sentiment was similarly shared by Editor-in-Chief junior Madison Kim. “Rock Ridge is known for its artistic and creative side, so being able to contribute to that image [is] very honoring,” Kim said.

The 2025 yearbook also carries significance because it honors the tenth anniversary of the opening of Rock Ridge High School. “The 2025 theme is also kind of our second year, highlighting the ten-year anniversary of Rock Ridge, so we wanted a more nuanced way of recognizing that ten-year milestone without it being a full anniversary book,” Prince said. 

Kim believes that certain qualities of the yearbook allowed it to encapsulate the ten-year anniversary. “The outgoing look that our font has represents our ten-year anniversary and our personality and character of yearbooks in the past,” Kim said.

The staff also hopes to encourage more students to join. “In yearbook, there is a place for everyone; if you don’t like writing, you can focus on design or photography,” Prince said. “If you really like writing, the yearbook has a lot of traditional and non-traditional stories.” 

Kakarlapudi really enjoys the work that she does in yearbook.  “The yearbook is such a good, memorable piece to look to for nostalgic feelings, and being a part of something that people look back to is really cool,” Kakarlapudi said.

The 2026 yearbooks have now been sold out and distributed among students who purchased a yearbook. Next year, both the Pacemaker and Gold Crown will judge this year’s yearbook, and the yearbook staff hopes to be able to continue maintaining their standards and even improve on what they have done in the past. “I would love to keep producing at the same quality that we have and further develop our design away from a traditional yearbook to add showstopper pages that look more like a magazine than the traditional five pictures and headline and mods,” Prince said.