The 2010-11 HiLite newsmagazine earned Gold Medalist status in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) annual critique. The publication earned 926 out of 1,000 possible points, additionally earning All-Columbian honors in the “verbal” category for scoring higher than 95 percent in that area. This is the first year the CSPA has offered a detailed critique in the “hybrid” category, which is designed for publications, like the HiLite, that use both a print publication and news website to share information with readers. The critique is designed to see how the publication staff blends its print and online offerings.

In his critique, the anonymous judge said, “(The HiLite has) a lot of different material, so there is something for everyone to read. You make your pages visually appealing, and you do a good job with the balance of text and graphics.”

Last year, the 2009-10 paper also received a Gold Medalist rating and went on in the spring to earn the CSPA’s second highest award, the Silver Crown, while the website went on to earn a Gold Crown, the CSPA’s highest honor. While the critique rating is separate from the Crown judging, traditionally the HiLite has performed well in the Crown competition, earning additional Gold Crowns for print in 1995, 1999 and 2005 and Silver Crowns in 1994, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The website has earned Gold Crowns in 2010 and 2011.

The 2010-11 editor in chief was Sara Rogers ’11, now at Duke University. The managing editors were Steven Chen ’11 (Dartmouth College), Mackenzie Madison ’11 (Purdue University), Rebecca Xu ’11 (Dartmouth College), and David Zheng ’11 (Princeton University). Jim Streisel advises the HiLite.