JEA names Candace Bowen 2013 Teacher Inspiration Award winner
The Journalism Education Association has named Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE, of Kent State University, as its 2013 Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award winner. This 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 Simpson, CJE, a teacher and publication adviser at Scituate High School in Massachusetts, and a former student of Bowen’s at St. Charles High School, in Illinois.
Simpson met Bowen in her high school sophomore English class, where she not only learned about “Julius Caesar,” but also learned that writing was “like a puzzle to solve, choosing just the right words in just the right place to perfect the whole work.”
Simpson decided at some point during her time on the X-Ray, the school newspaper, that she wanted to be just like Bowen: a high school journalism and English teacher, and that’s exactly what she did. In her first years of teaching, there was no journalism position available, but Simpson incorporated journalistic writing and thinking into her English classes, and was surprised to find a great reference, “Applying NCTE/IRA Standards in Classroom Journalism Projects,” co-authored by Bowen and Susan Hathway Tantillo, to help her.
As Simpson wrote, “It shouldn’t have surprised me that she literally ‘wrote the book’ on getting journalism into the ELA classroom.”
In her position as director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, Bowen has helped create an online master’s degree program in journalism education and supported many advisers across the nation in improving their professional practice. Bowen has been a leader for JEA for decades and mentors throughout Ohio and the nation through her workshops, writing and curriculum support.
The Journalism Education Association, Inc., is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and media advisers. It is headquartered at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.