CSPA honors 2019-2020 Feather staff with highest award

As media accuracy, quality and purpose comes under scrutiny during the last few years, Fresno Christian High School’s online newspaper, The Feather Online, continues to impress and lead the nation in daily student publication since 2006.

The Feather boasts two national awards from the top two nationwide press organizations in 2020, including a Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2021 Digital News Crown, Dec. 1. Earlier this year, the National Scholastic Press Association also awarded the digital paper a 2020 Online Pacemaker in April. Both critique agencies judged the website for the 2019/20 school year.

After not qualifying for CSPA’s top award in 2019 for the first time in 10 years, The Feather Online was awarded a Digital News Crown, which will be determined either Gold or Silver this upcoming March 2021.

Out of 849 qualified entries, CSPA honored only 17 schools from across the country. Officials will announce winners in mid-March 2021. The other two California high schools to earn a Crown are The Oracle from Los Angeles and The Paly Voice from Palo Alto.

The Fresno high school publication is one of only three California schools to earn New York City’s Columbia University highest media award.

Congratulations to the 2021 CSPA Crown finalist for digital The Feather Online | https://t.co/criWXzhLMh, Fresno Christian High School, Fresno, CA pic.twitter.com/tZ4r8TtVY7

— Columbia ScholasticP (@CSPA) December 1, 2020

Earlier this year, The Feather, along with one other high school from California, earned a 2020 Online Pacemaker. The NSPA honored the Fresno publication in its prestigious Pacemaker competition, April 17.

While senior Addison Schultz is no longer The Feather’s editor-in-chief, she led the team during the 2019-20 school year.

“In order to compete with larger schools at the national level, our journalists and editors find creative ways to draw community individuals into articles,” Schultz said. “From personally interviewing radio hosts like Christopher Gabriel to contacting individuals around the globe about their reactions to shelter-in-place orders, The Feather staff strives to create a reliable source for people to gain information.”

Despite the challenges during a COVID outbreak, The Feather proved it still is one of the nation’s best high school newspapers. The Fresno high school’s population has less than 200 students but yearly competes against schools with 1,800 – 4,000 students.

“Last year, senior journalist Serena Zhao expanded on the issue of the coronavirus in her numerous articles on sheltering-in-place, COVID’s community impact, and Chinese students during lockdown,” Schultz said. “Others like then juniors Brayden Iest and Celeste Castenaeda shared the impact COVID-19 on US agriculture and family structures. These articles are vital to the FC community as students work to gain an understanding of the complicated effects of world issues.”

In another note of excellence, only two other high school publications in the United States earned both an NSPA Online Pacemaker and a CSPA Digital News Crown for publishing during the 2019-20 school year. Congratulations to the Southwest Shadow from Las Vegas and the Wayland Student Press of Wayland, MA, for also reaching this unique honor.

Both the NSPA and CSPA are the top two organizations to offer critique and judge high school and collegiate newspapers’ competition, doing so for nearly 100 years.

Both Feather advisers Greg Stobbe and Kori James continue to submit The Feather for critique and competition. Fresno Christian High School’s daily internet paper has earned ten CSPA Crowns since 2009. The CSPA honors its top qualifying high school publications in the United States, regardless of school size, division or state.

“Building a newspaper that fuses campus and global news is not an easy task,” Schultz continued. “I’m proud of The Feather for continuing to telling the stories of our community and world. Our advisers Greg Stobbe and Kori James’s dedication to excellence continues to drive this paper. I’m so thankful to both of them for guiding our team this past year.”

During the 2020 NSPA Online Pacemaker competition, there were 28 finalists and only 16 were awarded the ‘Pulitzer Prize’ for high school journalism. The Feather Online earned its 7th Online Pacemaker since the 2005/06 school year and was one of only two digital newspapers honored from California in 2020.

There’s no question The Feather’s online publication is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen. — NSPA Judge Brian Higgins

In this NSPA critique, judge Brian Higgins, adviser of the Wingspan online newspaper in Frisco, Texas, gave high marks to Fresno Christian’s publication.

“The Feather is such an impressive digital publication,” judge Higgins said. “The coverage is wide ranging and in depth with excellent reporting and research. Multimedia is seamlessly interwoven into many stories. Categories are creative and topics are diverse. It is the complete package. In addition to the outstanding coverage, writing, design and photography, what is distinctive is the personal emphasis in concept. This book is all about the students at Fresno Christian School and their lives, their thoughts, their hopes and dreams.”

In Higgins critique, he scored The Feather Online with 477/510 points. The three Marks of Distinction come in Coverage & Content, Interactivity & Community and Breaking News.

“Having judged dozens upon dozens of sites over the years,” Higgins wrote, “there’s no question The Feather’s online publication is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen. Featuring tons of content, countless visuals, audio files, and compelling articles that are written well, the students, staff, and community of Fresno Christian Schools should be proud of everything this site provides.”

Senior Bryce Foshee is The Feather’s current editor-in-chief and is in his fourth year as a member of the team.

Receiving a Digital News Crown award from CSPA is a huge pick-me-up,” Foshee said. “It’s easy to start feeling like our work can be a waste of time, but receiving this recognition reminds me of the amazing work our team has pulled off and is still pulling off. It shows that people do care and our writing is making an impact in our school and beyond. Congrats also to the Paly Voice and The Oracle for their fantastic work; it’s awesome to have these like-minded schools in California.”

While COVID has impacted schools from across the country, a smaller Feather staff of 13 will continue to publish during the 2020-21 school year. Students are encouraged to share story ideas that impact their family, school, community. Send story ideas, photos, videos, social media clips to Feather adviser emails: kjames@fresnochristian or [email protected] or editor-in-chief [email protected].

For more Feather articles, read Bryce Foshee‘s column: Running the SAT/ACT gauntlet or Maiya Esqueda‘s  Despite controversy, TikTok remains popular with youth.