Both last year’s ReMarker newspaper and Marksmen yearbook received Gold Crowns—the highest award given—from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the close of its annual convention March 20 in New York. For The ReMarker, edited by Daniel Valella ’08, it was the sixth straight Gold Crown, setting a record for consecutive Gold Crowns won by a high school newspaper. The Marksmen, edited by Greg Fijolek ’08, won its second Gold Crown in four years.

Overall, 19 newspapers and 10 yearbooks, representing public, private, parochial and independent schools from across the United States, received Gold Crowns. Only three schools in the nation had both publications garner top honors. Additionally, St. Mark’s journalists won 43 Gold Circle awards for individual achievement in national writing, design, art, and photography competition. Congratulations to:

First Place
Jake McAuley (General or humor column writing; Editorial page design, color)
Arthur Brousseau & Garrett Johannsen (Yearbook academic spread design, color)
Cody Dunlap (Sports page design, black and white)
Dean Itani (News page design, color)
Sharan Shetty & Dhruv Singhal (Personality profile writing)
Michael Chavez & Daniel Valella (Typography, designed art or headline)
Daniel Valella (Overall design of newspaper; Overall page one design)
Zach Wolfe (Sports commentary writing; Sports page design, color)
Staff (Caption writing)

Second Place
John Bryant (Yearbook design portfolio)
Billy Eichenholz (Sports feature writing)
Jason Hale (News page design, black and white; Op-Ed page design, black and white)
Getty Hall (Feature photograph, color)
Spencer Heim (Photo illustration, color)
John Michel (News page design, color)
Daniel Valella (Typography, whole newspaper usage)
Staff (News brief writing; Photo page layout)

Third Place
Arthur Brousseau & Garrett Johannsen (Yearbook headline writing)
Forrest Compton & Ben Grisz (Yearbook sports page design, color)
Billy Eichenholz (Sports page design, black and white)
Matt Martin (Sidebar writing)
Patrick Neligan (First person experience writing)
Sloan Rudberg (Spot news photograph, color)

Certificate of Merit
James Blair, Greg Fijolek & John Bryant (Yearbook cover design; Yearbook endsheet design)
Arthur Brousseau & Garrett Johannsen (Yearbook organization spread, color)
Michael Chavez (Sports cartoons)
Ryan Constantine & Sharan Shetty (Double page spread design, color)
Casey Drake (Computer generated art/illustration)
Billy Eichenholz (Sports Feature Writing)
Chris Eubank (Yearbook people spread)
Greg Fijolek (Yearbook advertising design, color)
David Henry (Feature photograph, black and white)
Zach Jolly (Yearbook academic writing)
Timo Kolostrousbis (Yearbook feature writing, student life)
Sam Mallick & Sharan Shetty (News Writing)
Jake McAuley (Editorial page design, color)
Daniel Valella (News page design, black and white)

Students attending the CSPA convention included juniors Aaron Campbell, L.C. Chandler, Alex Chuka, Shibi Kannan, Sam Mallick, John Michel, Sloan Rudberg, Shashwat Samudra, Jonathan Swygert, and Zach Wolfe and sophomores Dean Itani, Chris Kim, Aidan Kirksey, Patrick McGee, and Hayden Wolf. With its headquarters at Columbia University in New York, CSPA is the largest scholastic press association in the United States and was founded in 1929. Over 1,800 schools maintain membership in the organization.