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This week, the B-A Blueprint, voice of the Bellwood-Antis Student Body, earned a second place finish among all Pennsylvania high school websites in the 2022 Keystone Media Awards. 

It is the fifth time in the last seventh years the BluePrint has been ranked among the top two students websites in the commonwealth. The BluePrint held the No. 1 spot in 2017 and 2018.

“I think it’s amazing that this group of students was able to pull together and continue the success we have had over the last five or six years,” said Mr. Kerry Naylor, the BluePrint advisor. “There is a strong framework in place from students of the past, so there’s a lot of pressure to keep it going, and this group of kids answered that challenge.”

Unlike some school newspapers that have the same staff from year to year, the Blueprint almost always starts completely new every school year because of conflicts with students’ schedules.

“This year we only had two returning staff members and seven freshmen, so this is big for them,” said Mr. Naylor.

This year’s staff includes Editor in Chief Jack Luensmann, Aarron Laird, Julius Diossa, Kimberly Bennett, JoJo Caswell, Johanna Heckman, Halee Young, Gracie Rice, Addalyn Turek, Cooper Guyer, Zach Pellegrine, Isabelle Kelley, Hayliana Shumac, Tyler Mercer, Holden Shook, and Victoria Jenkins.

The Keystone Media Awards are quite prestigious within the state of Pennsylvania. According to the the organizations website, the awards “Reinforce excellence by individuals in the news media profession, by recognizing journalism that consistently provides relevance, integrity, and initiative in serving readers and audiences, and faithfully fulfills its First Amendment rights/responsibilities. Further, the Keystone Media Awards stimulate journalists to improve their craft and ultimately improve their community.”

The Keystone Media Awards honor journalists in several categories, both professional and educational on the high school and college level.