After losing several seniors after the 2008-2009 school year, the staff of The Feather Online has continued to compete on a national level, winning at least an Online Silver Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), Feb. 17.

The Crown recognizes The Feather’s online coverage during the fall of 2009, ranging from excellence in page design to article quality to multimedia features.

The Feather Online was one of 27 online newspapers to be named a finalist, making them automatically a Silver winner, and eligible for a Gold Crown; the winners of which will be announced at Columbia University in March. Several Feather staffers will travel to New York to receive the award and attend a three-day CSPA conference, March 17-19.

Senior editor Austin Ward, ’11, says the honor of the award is even more meaningful considering the staff has 10 fewer members from last year’s high of 40.

“With so many new staffers this year, qualifying for a Crown award underscores the strong foundation that the paper has established for itself over the years,” Ward said. “It pleases me to see the continuing passion and drive of the staff that gets us to where we are today.”

For sophomore David Casuga, the Crown award marks the first competition in which The Feather has been recognized during his tenure as webmaster. He is excited that the CSPA recognizes The Feather with Crown.

“This award means that all the stress and antagonizing I got and all the bad stuff was absolutely worth it; that as a first-year webmaster, I won a Crown,” Casuga said. “I thought making the new features was really fun, but at the same time it was difficult to juggle focusing on journalism and then transition to something like math.”

Despite the jubilation of many staff members, some newbies are only being introduced to the world of competitive scholastic journalism through the award.

“I didn’t really know about the competition because I’m new to journalism and I’m never been involved in the newspaper,” freshman staffer Allie Frea said. “I don’t think about the competition [both Crown and the NSPA Pacemaker] every time I work, but when I am reminded, it does make me work faster.”

For more information about The Feather and its staff, read the Dec. 4, 2009 article, The Feather adds new multimedia features or the Jan. 21 article, Classroom antics, journalism occupy veteran teacher. Or, e-mail adviser Greg Stobbe.