The print newspaper and online newspaper received Silver Crown Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at Columbia University March 17. Twenty-four students went to New York City to accept the awards.

“It was interesting to see how many schools were actually there,” junior Casey Hitchcock said. “I knew there would be a lot of people, but not from so many areas. I was really proud of the awards we got.”

Crown awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA and are selected by a panel of judges who specialize in the field of journalism.

“We are honored to have the online newspaper to put more pictures on,” senior Hannah Patterson said. “We’ve been enjoying the print newspaper, and having the online also is great. To have won these awards is very special to us.”

The judges base their evaluations on all aspects of value to the reader or viewer, including presentation, coverage, photography, writing and editing.

“We received crown awards for both the online and the print newspaper,” senior Emily Hoover said. “We work really hard to make sure that both have interesting and original content. This year we expanded the online newspaper, to where a lot of stories and packages were written specifically for it. The online newspaper has been our main challenge this school year.”

Those who attended the awards ceremony were as follows: Carley Amox, Ruth Arnold, Katie Black, Rachel Burgess, Elizabeth Cook, Allison Fahrni, Ann Marie Hilborn, Casey Hitchcock, Emily Hoover, Amy McCoy, Claire Norton, Paige Oliver, Sierra Orr, Hannah Patterson, Davis Payne, Daniel Pellegrin, Caroline Prieskorn, Haley Rushing, Madeleine Russell, Autumn Sehy, Brianna Sellers, Macy Shirley, Alexis Williams, Hailey Woods.

“The trip to New York to accept the award was really amazing for me,” senior Elizabeth Cook said. “Being a three-year member of the staff and an editor, getting to actually receive the award we worked so hard for was really rewarding.”