The Guidon has been up and running for 92 years, and for the first time has received a badge. This year, they have applied for two other badges so far.

Online Editor Isabelle Braun is ecstatic at the achievement.

“We got the Site Excellence Badge,” Braun said. “I got on the SNO (Student Newspaper Online) website and looked at what requirement there were. There ended up being around 20 of them. To get the badge we had to meet these requirements and then submit our site for the people from SNO to judge. This is the first badge we’ve gotten ever, and I’m very proud of us.”

Editor and Chief of student publications Lacey Gregory says that by getting the badge, the online could potentially gain an edge for competition.

“By earning badges through the website that we use when our website gets judged and critiqued later in the year for national and state recognition, they will see that we have earned these badges, and that will give us an upper hand in the judging process,” Gregory said.

The journalism staff is working towards multiple other badges. As of now Braun plans on applying for the Coverage Badge, Story Page Excellence, Excellence in Writing Badge, Multimedia Badge, and then an Audience Engagement Badge.

The staff is working toward the Audience Engagement Badge.

“In order for us to get the Audience Engagement Badge we have to get 1,000 followers on two social media sites combined,” Braun said. “We really need people to follow us for that because we have around 400 followers right now. So, if people did want to follow it would help a lot. They can go follow us on Facebook and Twitter @HHSGuidon.”

Braun has high hopes for the online.

“I want the badges because the online is really important to me and, like Lacey said, they are going to give us an upper hand when it comes to judging,” Braun said. “I feel like people will notice us more if we’re better, so the more badges we have, the more likely people are going to be to come and reference our site. I want other schools to come to us and look at our site because we have good content and strive to be the best. I want us to be the best.”

19kpotter@usd489.com