After months of anticipation and long hours of hard work, The Feather was named a Digital Gold Crown winner by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the 90th annual Spring Scholastic Convention, March 21. The publication received its second consecutive Gold Crown and fourth overall since 2010.
With five categories of high school Crown awards ranging from Yearbook to Print to Hybrid, the CSPA awards its top honors to Gold Crown winners, and secondary honors to Silver Crown recipients.
Only four schools in total received Gold Crown awards for the High School Digital Publications category. Among the Gold Crown winners were FHNToday.com, My Jag Newsa and The Rider Online. The Feather Online was the only school from California to earn an honor in this category.
In the commentary showed on the big screen when announcing the award for The Feather, the up-to-date status of the publication as well as its well organized and interesting blogs were highlighted amongst other things.
Journalism adviser Greg Stobbe, could not be more thrilled for the staff and the work they have accomplished. He recognizes the talent amongst the many online publications and understands the great honor it is for The Feather to receive such a prestigious award.
“I am again reminded as to the difficulty of earning a scholastic honor after spending three days with my students at the CSPA,” Stobbe said. “With so many excellent online newspapers in each state, we saw many digital papers that could and will become successful, earning top honors. But on this day, representing The Feather Online, the students at a small school can compete successfully against the best programs in the country, regardless of size or division. I?m smiling because this year they covered their school and community well and I?m proud to be their adviser.”
Senior Editor, Viviana Hinojosa, ’14, was thoroughly surprised to the announcement of The Feather winning a Gold Crown. She is so grateful for her staff and the work they have accomplished. She believes the competition was extremely tough this year, and is happy to be one of four Gold Crown winners for the digital category.
“I’m completely amazed that we won a Gold Crown,” Hinojosa said. “Honestly, I thought we were going to receive a Silver Crown because the competition was so stiff this year. It was amazing to hear the announcer say The Feather won a Gold Crown. I am so grateful for all the work my staff put into working towards this award. It was an extremely special moment to share it with most of my staff.”
In consideration of being her senior year, Editor-in-Chief, Tynin Fries was thrilled for The Feather to win a Gold Crown. She acknowledges all the work her staff accomplished and is happy to finish her senior year strong.
“As this was my senior year, winning a Gold Crown was the most amazing feeling in the world,” Fries said. “Last year it was so surreal to win it, but this year I was so desperate to win and finish my high school journalism career strong. I am so proud of my staff for persevering through all the different obstacles we faced this year. We really stood together as I team and I am honored to be a part of that. This has been the highpoint of this year and experiencing this alongside my mentor, best friends, sister and peers is just a dream.”
There were five other California schools who earned a Gold Crown but these were in the Hybrid category which mixes a print edition and digital newspaper. These included El Estoque from Monta Vista High School, Cupertino, CA; Global Vantage from Pacific Ridge School, Carlsbad, CA; The Boiling Point from Shalhevet High School, Los Angeles, CA; The Campanile from Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA; and The Chronicle from Harvard-Westlake School, Studio City, CA;
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For more news, read the March. 20 article, Feather in The City, Day 4 (32 PHOTOS, VIDEO).
