Candace Perkins Bowen, associate professor and director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism, has been named the 2013 Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award winner by the Journalism Education Association (JEA). The award recognizes a journalism teacher who “through excellent instruction inspired others to pursue scholastic journalism teaching and/or advising.”
Bowen was nominated by Colleen Gacic, one of her former high school students at St. Charles High School in Illinois. During a stint on the high school newspaper, Gacic decided she wanted to be a high school journalism and English teacher just like Bowen. In her nomination statement, Gacic recalled that there was no journalism position available in her first years of teaching, so she incorporated journalistic writing and thinking into her English classes using the reference, “Applying NCTE/IRA Standards in Classroom Journalism Projects,” which was co-authored by Bowen. “It should’t have surprised me that [Bowen] literally ‘wrote the book’ on getting journalism into the ELA classroom,” Gacic wrote.
In bestowing the award, the JEA recognized Bowen for creating an online master’s program in journalism education. Six journalism educators have completed the online master’s program since its founding in Fall 2007. Bowen is also credited for mentoring journalism teachers throughout Ohio and the nation through her workshops, writing, and curriculum support.
The JEA is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and media advisers.