In 1969 a UWO professor, borrowing an idea from other state colleges, took a few college students to local high schools to bring awareness to the journalism field, to discuss ideas for newspapers and yearbooks and to answer questions students might have. This was the humble beginning of the Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association, or what was then the School Press Association.

Today NEWSPA is a thriving program to high schools journalists. The program has a large conference in the spring, where more than 500 students and advisers travel to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh to participate in over 50 sessions and panels led by professionals in the journalism field. NEWSPA also sponsors adviser training sessions, yearbook and newspaper competitions, and produces two newsletters a year.

“It was originally created as a service to high schools in our area,” said Gary Coll, a founder of NEWSPA and a professor at UW Oshkosh. “This service was available to any school that asked for it or joined.”

NEWSPA underwent some changes in 1976. E. Garner Horton, then a PR professor, formed the Board of Directors and the executive secretary role. This group adapted a constitution for NEWSPA and held the first conference and award ceremony at UW Oshkosh. The NEWSPA logo, a sketched portion of the state with the word NEWSPA overlaid, was designed by David Rhodes and used until 2003.

In 1983, Horton retired and turned the control of NEWSPA over to Skip Zacher and Mary Perpich. The two diversified the sessions available and recruited keynote speakers to attend. They also formed summer sessions where high school students would create a college newspaper called The High School Beat. The students could work with experienced journalists and discuss their own publications and problems.

Skip Zacher retired in 1999 and the board created a Friend of Scholastic Journalism Award in 2000. Every year the award honors someone who has consistently made significant contributions to NEWSPA.

The Board of Directors and Executive Secretary Mike Cowling formed a $500 scholarship in 2001, to reward the accomplishments of a high school journalism student pursuing a career in the journalism field.

In 2002, several men and women were honored at the NEWSPA conference for their contributions in forming and molding the NEWSPA program into what it is today. They were Ron Harrell, Mary Wepner, Marilyn Voeltner, Mary Schultz, Jim McKnight, Marion Anderson, Wally Williams, Evelyn Hince, Cheryl Feld, Ken Biendarra, Anne Wesenberg, Jim Hinstorff and Gary Coll.

In that same year NEWSPA decided to focus the spring conference on diversity in journalism and received a Diversity Innovation Grant from UW Oshkosh along with several contributions from other news outlets in the state. Minority journalists and diversity sessions were highlighted at the conference. The grant assisted with busing costs for schools with high minority populations, honorariums for minority speakers and attendance fees for minority students and advisors.

“The minority journalists were quite enthusiastic about participating,” said Cowling. “They were receptive and went out of their way to work it into their busy schedules because they know diversity is an important topic to discuss with young journalists.”

Every year the board meets to plan new changes and to try new ideas at the NEWSPA conference. In 2003, Acting Executive Secretary Barbara Benish had a new Web site designed and asked Beth Blanck, a 1995 UWO journalism graduate, to design a new logo. In 2008, Benish, now executive secretary, added another newsletter to highlight the winners and the winning entries of the annual newspaper and yearbook competitions. NEWSPA continues to grow and evolve every year to prepare students for the journalism world.