The 2011-12 HiLite newsmagazine earned Gold Medalist status in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) annual critique. The publication earned 851 out of 1,000 possible points, additionally earning All-Columbian honors in the “visual” category for scoring higher than 95 percent in that area. The HiLite entered the hybrid print-visual category, which is offered to publications with both print and online versions.

Quill & Scroll, the international honorary society for high school journalists, also recognized the 2011-12 edition with its highest honor, the George H. Gallup Award with “superior” ratings in all three of the organization’s individual categories – coverage, visuals and writing / editing. The newsmagazine also earned superior ratings in subcategories like business, circulation and finance.

In the CSPA critique, the judge said, “You should be super proud of the work you and your staff have produced. This newspaper and website is very exciting and beyond visually pleasing.”

Last fall the 2010-2011 paper also won a Gold Medal from the CSPA and the George H. Gallup Award from Quill & Scroll.

The 2011-12 editor in chief was Laura Peng ’12, now at Yale University. The managing editors were Patrick Bryant ’12 (Wabash College), Monica Cheng  ’12 (Northwestern University), Yameen Hameed ’12 (Indiana University), and Caroline Zhang ’12 (Harvard University). Jim Streisel advises the HiLite.