Carmel High School publications earn top awards from CSPA

Both 2007-08 Carmel High School print publications, the HiLite newspaper and the Pinnacle yearbook, earned Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s highest award, the Gold Crown, announced at the CSPA’s annual convention, which concluded on March 20. The Pinnacle was one of only 10 scholastic yearbooks in the country to earn Gold Crown status; the HiLite was one of only 19 high school newspapers in the country to earn the same distinction.

According to the CSPA Web site, a total of 1,771 newspapers, magazines and yearbooks published during the 2007-2008 academic year were eligible in the 2009 Crown Awards program. Both publications learned of their Crown finalist status in December but didn’t find out their final Crown designation until the CSPA convention. The complete list of Crown Award winners is available at the CSPA Web site, http://tinyurl.com/dzcd77.

While this is the first Crown designation for the Pinnacle in recent years, the HiLite has performed consistently well in the Crown competition, earning Gold Crowns in 1995, 1999 and 2005 and Silver Crowns in 1994, 2004, 2006 and 2007.

The editors of the 2007-08 HiLite were editor in chief Jaclyn Chen ’08 (University of Pennsylvania) and managing editors Grace Baranowski ’08 (Duke University) and John Shi ’08 (Dartmouth University).

The editors of the 2007-08 Pinnacle were Stephanie Grass ’08 (DePauw University) and Claire Horton ’08 (University of Missouri).

Jim Streisel advises the HiLite and Lisa Morris advised the 2007-08 Pinnacle. Nicole Wilson advises the current year’s yearbook staff.