After waiting months upon months for the 89th annual Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Spring Convention, The Feather staff attended their last day of the conference, March 22. Once they grabbed their New York style bagels and Starbucks coffee, the staffers hopped on the metro to Columbia University and started their final day in the big city with high hopes.

Upon arriving to the University, the group mapped out the three workshops they would attend: “Confessions of Former High School Nerds,” “Confessions of a Techaholic,” and “Swap Shop.” Within each of the classes, students received tips on how to develop their personal portfolios in the journalism world, learned about how to utilize new technology and participated in conversations with other high school newspapers.

Following their three classes, the group made their way to two separate lunch venues, where they purchased various meals like calzones, hot wings, fries and macaroni and cheese. After their lunch break, the staff waited for about an hour and a half before entering the Crown Awards ceremony in the Roone Arledge Auditorium of Alfred Lerner Hall.

Around 2000 students attended the conference, but only a portion of those students who were nominated for a crown attended the awards ceremony to await either a Silver or Gold Crown. According to the CSPA Convention and Workshops page, more than 1800 CSPA member publications enter the Crown competition, but only about 100 Crown Awards are given.

The Feather staff members anxiously waited for their name to be called when the ceremony began. Just before The Feather was announced, Editor-in-chief Tynin Fries, ’14, Senior Editor Maddie Yee, ’13, and Features Editor Viviana Hinojosa, ’14, tightly held each other’s hands while holding their breath in great anticipation. A sigh of relief and screams of excitement were heard when the publication was announced as a 2013 Gold Crown winner.

Fries, Yee, Hinojosa, along with adviser Greg Stobbe, seniors Juan Ruelas, Stephan Melendez and sophomore Callista Fries went up to receive the award and pose for pictures. This was the third Gold Crown that the publication has received and the fifth Crown including its two Silver Crowns from previous years.

This year, the CSPA presented 77 Scholastic Gold Crowns and 95 Silver Crowns. Executive director of the CSPA, Edmund J. Sullivan, presented plaques to the Crown winners who were present at the convention. Those who did not attend will be mailed their plaque beginning April 1.

Due to prior commitments, Fries left for the John F. Kennedy International Airport immediately following the awards ceremony in order to catch her early flight home. The rest of the staff returned to their hotel to change into comfortable clothes, before eating dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.

The rest of the evening was filled with shopping in Times Square, working on articles at Starbucks and celebrating the staff’s Gold Crown with dessert and joyful conversation.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @madeleineyee.

For more news, read the March 21 article, Broadcasts in the Big Apple, Day 4 (49 PHOTOS, VIDEO).