For the fifth consecutive year, The ReMarker student newspaper received the Gold Crown award (the highest given) from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) at its annual convention in New York on March 21. Crown winners are selected from entries submitted by over 1,850 CSPA member schools, and publications are evaluated by a committee of journalism educators and professional journalists on the topics of writing and editing, coverage, editorial leadership, design, graphics and artwork, and photography. Only 11 student newspapers of the 45 finalists were named Gold Crown winners by the CSPA. Tomi Maxted ’07, editor of The ReMarker, accepted the award on behalf of his staff.

Additionally, student journalists received 21 Gold Circle awards for exceptional individual work. From over 500 entries in each category, St. Mark’s winners included:

David Sabeti ’07 - First Place, newspaper page design, single page
Cody Dunlap ’08 & Patrick Neligan ’09 - First Place, newspaper sports page design
Cody Dunlap ’08 - Third Place, newspaper sports page design
Patrick Neligan ’09 - Honorable Mention for sports news writing
Phillip Azouz ’07 - First Place, newspaper feature page design
Jake McAuley ’08 - First Place, personal opinion column writing, off-campus issues; Second Place, opinion page design; Honorable Mention, personal opinion column writing, on-campus issues
John Aldous ’07 - First Place, entertainment review writing; Third Place, personal opinion column writing, off-campus issues
Jacques Barjon ’08 - Third Place, sports news writing
Tomi Maxted ’07 - Third Place, newspaper page one design
Daniel Valella ’08 - Third Place, newspaper feature page design; Honorable Mention, entertainment review writing
Tomi Maxted ’07 & Daniel Valella ’08 - Honorable Mention, overall design for newspapers
Eric Rosenbaum ’07 - Honorable Mention, personality profile writing for newspapers
Photography Staff - Honorable Mention, four-color photo story for newspapers
Josh Dunn ’07 & Tomi Maxted ’07 - honorable mention, feature page one design for newspapers
Blake Winston ’09 - Honorable Mention, color sports action photo for yearbooks
Luke Kline ’07 & Spencer Branch ’07 - Honorable Mention, division page design for yearbooks
Hollis Meyer ’07 & Nick Bailey ’07 - Honorable Mention, headline writing for yearbooks

Founded in 1925, the CSPA is the nation’s oldest organization for scholastic journalists. This year, over 3,100 students attended the 84th annual conference, which takes place at Columbia University.