Last month Charles Wright’s student newspaper, The Academy Times, became the second Washington state publication inducted into the National Scholastic Press Association’s Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for the nation’s best student newspapers, yearbooks and literary magazines.  Inductees must have earned 10 All-American ratings from the NSPA within an 11-year span. The Academy Times newspaper has earned that rating a total of 14 times in the past 20 years.

“Our first issue came out December 1, 1988, and teaching journalism for the last 20 years at Charles Wright has been a fantastic experience,” said Steve Matson who has served as adviser to the paper since its inception. “I’ve been so lucky to have worked with great editors and staffers at a school that respects the voice of the students. This ‘slow motion’ award recognizes the pursuit of journalistic excellence by 20 different staffs.”

Journalists from Charles Wright accepted the honor at the NSPA’s annual conference in Saint Louis, Missouri.  Induction into the Hall of Fame recognizes the efforts of all those Tarriers who have served as editor-in-chief of the paper and as student reporters.  Together they have developed The Academy Times into one of the very best high school newspapers in the country.

In the November/December issue of Ties, the school’s quarterly publication, the school begins exploring where all those past editors are, what they’re doing with their lives, and what they remember most about their days on the newspaper staff.  That series will continue all year.

The past editors of the paper are:

Tracey Reim Luckner ’89
Pomona College and Columbia
Luckner is a senior product manager at Nestle Nutrition, working on new Gerber baby food products.

Paige Boyle Evers ’90
Bryn Mawr College and Luther Seminary
Evers is the pastor of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Edgewood, Maryland.

Kimberly Chu Reed ’91
Columbia College
Reed is now a partner at American Capital Strategies in the private equity buyouts group.

Stephanie Lai Chen ’92
Stanford University, undergraduate and school of business
Chen managed merchandising in the Gap’s international division for both BabyGap and GapKids before taking time off from her career to raise her children.

Beth Olson Sutron ’93
Stanford University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management
Sutron launched the Gap’s RED campaign, traveling to Africa with Bono, writing talking points for Oprah and going on photo shoots with Annie Leibovitz, an experience she describes as “pretty much exactly like running The Academy Times.”  She is now taking time off from her career to raise her children.

Scott Case ’94
Williams College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management
Case now works at Microsoft as a director of product management, leading a team of software product managers in Microsoft’s digital advertising technologies group.

Heather Tapp Anderson ’95
University of San Diego
Anderson worked for United Airlines for ten years.  She is now an active volunteer with the Tacoma Children’s Museum and Junior League.

Kathy Niakan ’96
University of Washington and UCLA
Niakan holds a PhD in human genetics and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard conducting research in embryonic stem cells and teaching stem cell biology.

Marnie Bergman Silver ’96
University of Washington, undergraduate and law school
Silver is now a civil defense attorney in Seattle.

Michi Wohns ’98
Occidental College and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising
Wohns is planning a career as a special education teacher.

Loren Thompson ’98

Andrea Haughton Kladder ’99
University of Puget Sound and Princeton Theological Seminary
Kladder is the associate pastor of family ministries at Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Illinois.

Nate Rowland ’00
University of Denver, undergraduate and school of business
He now manages The Sky Hotel in Aspen, Colorado.

Ahrum Hong ’01
Rhode Island School of Design

Jen White Chiang ’01
University of Washington, undergraduate and school of law
Chiang is now an attorney focusing on intellectual property and technology licensing.

Marya Colignon ’02
Whitman College
Colignon is in her final year of law school at the University of Oregon.

Mike Zeeck ’03
George Washington University
Zeeck now works in the signatories department of the Directors Guild of America.

Dan Moe ’04
California Lutheran University and the University of Oregon

Katherine Robinson ’05
Robinson is a student at Whitman College.

Ashley McLean ’05
McLean is a student at the University of San Diego.

Jamie Lee ’06
Lee is a student at the University of Southern California.

Anna Min ’07

Emily Rome ’08
Rome is a student at Loyola Marymount University.