Silver Chips is one of ten national finalists for the Pacemaker award sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation. Winners will be notified at the end of October whether they will be honored at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention on November 21-24, 2002 in Dallas. The last time Silver Chips won the Pacemaker award, which is given to the top high school paper in the country, was in 1975.

Walt Whitman High School's newspaper, Black and White, is also one of the ten finalists in the category of school newspapers with over 17 pages. With Black and White and Stinger of Emmaus, PA, Silver Chips is only one of three finalists from the East Coast. For a complete list of finalists see http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/winners/npm02.html.

The Pacemaker award, under its current co-sponsorship of NSPA and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, has been awarded since 1971. The NSPA had been giving awards, however, since 1927. The judges, professional journalists at the Boston Globe, grade newspapers based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, and art and graphics.

Blair's online newspaper, Silver Chips Online, will be judged separately in February and the finalists for the Pacemakers Online Newspaper awards will be announced in March 2003 for a convention on April 10-13 in Portland, OR. The editors in chief, however, are confident considering that Silver Chips Online, according to Yahoo.com, continues to be the most visited high school newspaper in the nation.