THE AWARD: The IJEA seeks to honor individual scholastic media educators who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the success and progress of IJEA and scholastic media education. Hall of Fame inductees must meet some or all of the following criteria:

Service to IJEA and to the education of student journalists in Illinois. This service may include:

• Having significant numbers of students enrolled in his/her journalism or media program.
• Being involved in IJEA and/or a regional press association as an active member, speaker, author, judge.
• Coming to the aid of Illinois advisers or programs faced with prior review and/or censorship.
• Mentoring new advisers, either formally through the IJEA-JEA Mentoring Program or informally over a sustained period of time as documented by the nominator’s letter.
• Being involved in IHSA journalism sectional or state contests.
• Writing journalism-related articles or books for statewide circulation.
• Being recommended by one or more of the following in addition to a current IJEA Hall of Fame member: school administrator, other school personnel, media professional, former student currently active in media or journalism education.
• Having a minimum of 10 years’ experience as a journalism educator/student media adviser.

Contributions to the field of student journalism. These contributions may include:

• Speaking at conferences or teaching at journalism workshops — local, regional, state, national.
• Judging scholastic media contests for other states or national groups.
• Writing journalism-related articles or books for national circulation, including sharing original lesson plans via schooljournalism.org or other websites.

Outstanding personal achievements related to student journalism. These achievements may include:

• Becoming an elected or volunteer leader of a regional, state or national scholastic journalism group other than IJEA.
• Achieving JEA recognition as a Certified Journalism Educator or Master Journalism Educator.
• Receiving awards from other scholastic media organizations.

PRESENTATION: The award is presented at the annual awards luncheon in June unless a special function, such as an anniversary celebration, is deemed a more appropriate venue.

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS: The list of IJEA Hall of Fame members can be found here. Past recipients of this award are encouraged to submit nominations. Others who are aware of qualified candidates should recommend those individuals to past recipients for official nomination.

ANNUAL DEADLINE: This form must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. March 1 of the current school year.

PDF OPTION: If you would prefer to fill out and mail in a hard-copy version of this nomination form, you can download our PDF form here. The mailing instructions are included in the form.

NOTE: Asterisks indicate fields in which a response is required.