For the second year in a row, the CHS student news website, HiLite Online, has earned a Gold Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), that organization’s highest award. Additionally, the HiLite newsmagazine print publication earned the CSPA’s second highest honor, the Silver Crown. The awards were announced at the CSPA’s annual convention at Columbia University on March 18. The online award is based on this year’s website while the print award is based on the 2009-10 publication.

According to the CSPA, 1,434 magazines, newspapers, yearbooks and online publications were eligible for Crown Awards. HiLite Online was one of only nine websites in the country, and the only one in Indiana, to earn the Gold Crown distinction. The HiLite print publication was one of just 42 publications in the country to earn a Crown Award – 12 of those were Gold and the remaining 30 were Silver. Again, the HiLite was the lone Crown winner from Indiana.

The HiLite has traditionally performed well in the Crown competition, earning Gold Crowns for print in 1995, 1999, 2005, 2009 and 2010 and Silver Crowns in 1994, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The HiLite Online earned a Gold Crown in 2010.

Senior Sara Rogers is the current HiLite editor in chief. She is joined on the editorial management team by seniors Steven Xiwei Chen, Mackenzie Madison, Rebecca Xu and David Zheng. Steven Miin Chen and Yusheng Zhu are this year’s website editors. Last year’s print management team was editor in chief Michelle Hu (Harvard University), Rosemary Boeglin (Oberlin College) and Sarah Sheafer (College of Charleston). Jim Streisel advises the HiLite.