Merle Dieleman recently retired as a teacher of language arts and journalism and as publications adviser at Pleasant Valley Community High School, in Pleasant Valley, Iowa, after 34 years of teaching. His teaching duties included teaching composition to college-bound students.
Dieleman has been adviser to the newspaper, the Spartan Shield, and the yearbook, the Valenian, for 16 years, and has advised publications for 34 years. The newspaper has won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown Award, several CSPA Silver Crown Awards, 12 National Scholastic Press Association All-American Awards and 14 Quill and Scroll George H. Gallup Awards while Dieleman advised it. The yearbook has consistently won first- and second-place awards in the annual Iowa High School Press Association yearbook contest.
Dieleman served as president of the Iowa High School Press Association for two terms and as president of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association.
He has received the Stratton Award from the IHSPA, the Scott County Golden Apple Teacher Recognition Award, the Gold Key Award from CSPA, the Iowa High School Journalism Teacher of the Year Award, the Dow Jones National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year Award in 1996, and has been inducted into the Iowa High School Press Association Hall of Fame. He has also won the Pioneer Award from the National Scholastic Press Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Journalism Education Association.
Dieleman teaches at journalism workshops and conferences around the world and has taught high school students and advisers about Western style fact-based journalism in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia. He also serves as a judge for numerous state and national journalism contests.
