Laguna Blanca’s student publication The Fourth Estate was one of 28 hybrid magazines chosen as finalists for the CSPA Crown Award to be presented in March at Columbia University. Crown finalists are actual winners, not just nominees.
Some will be announced as Gold Crowns; the rest are Silver Crowns. A total of 1,100 publications were eligible for judging. The magazines were published during the 2016-17 academic year.
In its 23 years of publishing, The Fourth Estate has been recognized with Silver Crown Awards twice, in 2010 and 2016. Crown Awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or digital medium for overall excellence.
“For The Fourth Estate to receive Crown Awards two years in a row is unprecedented,” said journalism teacher Trish McHale. “It represents overall excellence in journalism on a national scale.”
A panel of Crown Award judges assembles each year at Columbia University to view all entrants, whether they are newspaper, magazines, yearbooks, or online media.
The judges are experienced former advisers to student media, professional journalists familiar with student media, or professionals such as photographers or online specialists with particular expertise needed for the judging exercise.
Publications are judged on their excellence as shown by their design, photography, concept, coverage, writing and editing.
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association was founded in 1925 to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques, and award programs.
In addition to the Crown Award, four Laguna Blanca students — Carina Tedesco, Sonya Kotler, Rose Houglet and Kailea Hieshima (all class of 2018) — received honors last month in the 34th annual Gold Circle Awards given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA).
CSPA is an international student press association that recognizes superior work by individual student journalists. The CSPA received 4,166 yearbook and digital media entries, plus 7,093 print news and magazines entries.
“This recognition is significant in that our student journalists compete with top-ranked public and private schools with staffs three to four times the size of our staff,” McHale said.
For more information about Lagun Blanca, visit lagunablanca.org or call 687-2461.
— Tara Broucqsault for Laguna Blanca School.