Sachem, Algonquin’s literary and art magazine, recently won the first-place All-New England award in the New England Scholastic Press Association’s literary magazine contest.
New England Scholastic Press Association, also known as NESPA, is an organization that provides workshops and contests for student publications. While the yearbook and newspaper awards were announced last May (The Harbinger was a recipient of the newspaper and news website All-New England awards in May of 2025), the literary magazine award winners were announced at a writing workshop and awards ceremony on Sept. 27.
Junior Lily Spezzano, Sachem’s Managing Editor, is happy with the publication’s accomplishment and enjoyed the workshop and ceremony.
“I liked that we were able to talk to other people doing the same things at other schools; it was a really fun experience for us,” Spezzano said.
Spezzano notes that Sachem had a lot of strengths that led them to receive this recognition.
“We had a big emphasis on theme while other high schools didn’t really have a theme,” Spezzano said. “It helped us out a lot.”
Sachem editors and staff work over the course of the school year to plan and produce their yearly magazine. Spezzano enjoyed meeting with students from other high schools that work on their own magazines.
“We had to brainstorm the problems with creating magazines that we faced between different high schools,” Spezzano said.
Sachem’s graphic design editor, sophomore Chan Nguyen-Le is proud of the graphic design team’s hard work in producing an award-winning magazine.
“We had to do a lot of planning on what the magazine should look like,” Nguyen-Le said. “A big part was trying stuff and getting feedback from the people around you; it was a team effort.”
Nguyen-Le is proud of the magazine and how the group at Sachem was able to get their dedication noticed.
“We just had so much great artwork from a variety of people,” Nguyen-Le said. “All the pages came out really spectacular.”
Nguyen-Le believes the abundance of artwork in the magazine added to their list of strengths.
“All of us are really art-based and it really helped against other schools that were more writing-based,” Nguyen-Le said.
Nguyen-Le enjoyed seeing other schools’ publications at the workshop.
“My favorite part was seeing how all the other schools coordinate their magazines,” Nguyen-Le said. “We’re all doing the same thing but in a different way.”
Sachem adviser Matthew Querino is proud of the work Sachem does to showcase the arts at Algonquin
“I like that our school was recognized for our art and photography programs,” Querino said. “It was a really big win for the arts here.”
Querino emphasized that the artistic talents of the students who contributed to the magazine were responsible for their success.
“I was really happy and I’m glad that our magazine is shining a light on all of our students,” Querino said.
