Luke Huang, Reporter
@lukehcourant
The Courant has won the Gold Medalist Honor from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, or CSPA, for its outstanding work last year. According to their website, CSPA is an international student press association that was founded in 1925 with the mission of uniting student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges.
The Courant submitted their last year’s work under the hybrid news category, which is for newspapers that have both online and print publications. The CSPA reviewed their work by considering elements ranging from coverage and digital interactivity to visual design and photography. The Courant scored 881 out of 1000 possible points, which earned the highest possible honor: Gold Medalist.
In their summary report, the CSPA wrote “The sign of an outstanding publication is that the reader keeps going back again because there is so much rich verbal and visual content. This is the Courant which publishes multiple issues with diverse coverage. What distinguishes the Courant are the numerous serious issues the writers address through substantive research and interviewing; the outstanding interviewing skills result in thoughtful, in depth quotes.”
According to Aleena Nasruddin, senior and one of the editors-in-chief last year, one strength of last year’s publications was the coverage of pressing issues such as the local Black Lives Matter march and Earth Month.
Last year, the Courant adapted to hybrid scheduling. According to Lauren Doherty, senior and one of last year’s editors-in-chief, the hybrid model made scheduling meetings and interviews difficult. In addition, access to Adobe InDesign, the primary software used for Courant print publications, was unreliable.
“Because of the hybrid schedule, it was hard to produce a full newspaper,” said Aleena “We did fantastic given the circumstances.”
Even though hybrid scheduling presented challenges, it also brought memorable experiences. Imogen Rawling, senior and a features editor who was remote for the majority of last year, said, “The editors-in-chief and section editors came together on Zoom to create a podcast called ‘Stuck in the Q’. It was amazing.”
Throughout last year, journalism teachers Roman Cebulski and Michael McAteer were crucial for the Courant’s growth and success. “Both Mr. Cebulski and Mr. McAteer were a great help. I’ve seen immense improvement in our media because of Mr. Cebulski. Mr. McAteer encouraged us to write about what we were interested in and that lent itself to mature handling of diverse topics,” Lauren said.
“Our staff has done an amazing job of building on our foundation in traditional journalism, expanding our work into blogs and social media,” Mr. McAteer said. “We’re publishing original content on our Instagram and YouTube accounts and distributing podcasts through Spotify. It’s great to have CSPA recognize the quality of our work as we continue to prepare students for careers, not only as journalists but in all areas of digital communications.”
“It means a lot to us because it affirms the quality of our work,” Aleena said. “I’m excited for our newspaper’s future.”
Imogen said, “It’s a real joy to make something that students look forward to reading about.”
