Lafayette Teacher Earns Journalism Education Association Lifetime Achievement Award

Lafayette High teacher and journalism adviser Nancy Smith is one of nine recipients of this year's Journalism Education Association (JEA) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Smith has been a journalism adviser for more than 30 years and currently advises the journalism program at Lafayette, which includes the Lancer Feed news service, Image newsmagazine and Legend yearbook. Smith has served as the National Student Media Contests chair for many years, and Lafayette students are routinely honored for their outstanding work at state and national competitions.

"(Her former students) are now using the skills Nancy taught them in their careers as digital media editors, video journalists, graphics reporters, art directors and print reporters," Marquette High journalism adviser Emily Jorgensen said in a media release.

Smith and the rest of the Lifetime Achievement Award winners will be honored at the Spring 2024 National Scholastic Press Association/Journalism Education Association (NSPA/JEA) Convention, which will be held from April 4-6 in Kansas City.

At the fall convention, Lafayette students earned first-place national awards in Newsmagazine Cover and Editorial, as well as a third-place in Informational Graphic.

“I believe that her engagement and impact should be honored, and I am grateful to support her, as I know that she values her time spent at Lafayette and in all the high school journalism community, locally and nationally,” Lafayette senior and Legend editor-in-chief Morgan Stoermer said in the release. “Mrs. Smith does not create greatness but rather finds it within her students and nurtures it as it grows.”