On March 15, The Journal received a Silver Crown Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), the only student newspaper in West Virginia to do so. After The Journal became a Crown Award finalist on Dec. 14, making them eligible to receive a Silver or Gold Crown, the staff was invited to a conference at Columbia University. Starting on Wednesday, March 13 through Friday, March 15, three members of The Journal and the yearbook staffs went to New York City with adviser Beth Koreski to participate in the event. Each attended sessions to improve their abilities for the production of these medias and plan to use their skills accordingly.
“Learning from actual professionals was an experience I could never take back and I’m thankful for it,” said junior Morgan McFee, a member of the yearbook staff. “It was such a great opportunity to get to learn different copy techniques and learn how to make them into a career that I will enjoy.”
On Friday afternoon, the group attended the awards ceremony at Columbia’s Lerner Hall, where The Journal received a Silver Crown.
“Obviously I knew we won something, but I was still nervous,” said sophomore Brooklyn Miller, a member of the newspaper and yearbook staffs. “I figured we got silver since it was our first time but it was still exciting, especially since we were the only publication in West Virginia to receive this honor. I think we could definitely, if not the higher ranking (Gold Crown), at least get the silver again next year.”
The Journal staff plans to improve the news site and intend to qualify for the Crown Awards next year.
“The awards ceremony was so helpful in that we were able to see the other schools that also got awards, so we can kind of see what we should improve,” said Koreski. “If we take what we learned at the conference and we apply that and everyone (on the staff) is committed, I think we can continue to be a qualifier in that category every year.”
