By Celina Dietzel ‘17

The Knox Student, Knox College's student-run newspaper, was recently nominated for News Story of the Year by The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP), a national journalism organization.

The story "Calling for Change" was co-written by Nadia Spock '18 and Carly Taylor '16 in the fall of 2015, and this marks the fourth year in a row The Knox Student has been a finalist for this award.

"Any sort of investigative reporting takes a lot of time and energy, especially on top of other student responsibilities, so being able to work as a team made a huge difference in what we were able to accomplish with this story," said Spock.

The piece goes up against nine other news stories written by college students at schools around the country, including Northwestern University, City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, and Duke University.

TKS Advisor Tom Martin notes the significance of being a finalist for a national award.

"I think it's pretty impressive to see TKS listed with these big schools. It shows that the students are sharp, smart, and dedicated," he said.

This nomination joins a long list of other awards and nominations the newspaper has received in recent years, including 19 state journalism awards in 2016 and 12 in 2015. Editor-in-chief Rachel Landman attributes the paper's recent success to the hard work of its editors.

"We have a staff that puts in a lot of hours and a lot of passion ... they continue to push themselves to do great work," she said.

TKS was founded by Samuel S. McClure, an 1882 Knox graduate who later created McClure's Magazine, the influential Progressive Era publication that is widely acknowledged as the first American publication to focus on investigative journalism.

The ACP contest winners will be announced at the National College Media Convention in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2016.