Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) and the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) are the two leading student media organizations. Their awards in order of significance:
CSPA:
CROWN AWARD: SILVER OR GOLD
MEDALISTS: All Columbian-Gold-Silver-Bronze
GOLD CIRCLE AWARDS: First Place-Second Place-Third Place-Certificate of Merit
NSPA:
PACEMAKER AWARD
CRITIQUES: All American with 4-5 Marks of Distinction, First Class-Second Class-Third Class
Best of Show
Best of the High School Press
Journalism Honor Roll
Crown Awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or digital medium for overall excellence. (The Fourth Estate earned our first Silver Crown 2011-2012)
Medalists Awards: Gold Medalists are given for total scores from 800 to 1,000 points; Silver Medalists, from 600 through 799 points; and Bronze Medalists, 599 points and below. In addition to Medalist ratings, All Columbian Honors are given within a scorebook section when the sectional total reaches 95% or more of the possible points.
Gold Circle Awards: recognize superior work by student journalists usually as individuals but sometimes as an entire staff working with either print or online media. Categories: First, Second, Third Place, and Certificate of Merit
National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA)
Pacemaker Award represents journalism’s oldest and most prestigious prize for excellence in publications. (The website was a Pacemaker Finalist 2011-2012)
Individual Awards: Story of the Year, Design of the Year, Picture of the Year and Cartooning awards.
Newspaper Critiques: The composite score from all sections gives the publication an honor rating ranging from Third Class to All American. The All American rating is the highest rating given to any publication.
National High School Journalism Conventions Best of Show awards.
Best of the High School Press: Students and teachers love to study this full-color, annual showcase of award-winning student work. (A page from The Fourth Estate was published in the 2012 Edition)
Journalism Honor Roll, an annual listing of student journalists who have achieved high academic honors and contributed to student media at their school.
2012-2013 Fourth Estate Awards
Columbia Scholastic Awards
Columbia Gold Medalist Certificate with a total of 898 out of a possible 1,000 points.
Gold Circle Individual Excellence Awards: (8)
Category: Personal opinion: Off-campus issues: Second Place: Allison Lewis Towbes, “Hunger hurts.”
Category: News Page Design: Third Place: Jessie Dusebout, “Journalists of all ages collaborate.”
Category: Op-Ed or News Analysis Page Design Portfolio of work: First Place: Allison Lewis Towbes.
Category: Feature Page Design: Second Place: Caterina Lafitte, “Local roots.”
Category: Single Subject News or Feature Package, Single Page Design Portfolio of work: First Place: Helena Davila
Category: Sports Page Design: Certificate of Merit: Scott Johnston and Stephen McCaffery, “Bowl Season.” Certificate of Merit: Caitlin Connor and Stephen McCaffery, “Sports: Skiing is a tradition.”
Category: Single Subject News or Feature Package, Two Pages, Double-truck or Special Section Design: First Place: Anastasia Antonova, Caterina Lafitte and Zoe Serbin, “Face off: the fight for the presidential position.”
Third Place: Anastasia Antonova and Zoe Serbin, “Generation dubstep.”
National Scholastic Press Association Awards:
All-American Honor Rating points with 4 out of 5 Marks of Distinction in Coverage/Content, Writing/Editing, Photos/Art/Graphics, and /Layout Design.
