By Kimberly Willis Green
Atlanta Public Schools’ Henry W. Grady High School received the 2015 Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) Gold Crown Awards for its publications The Southerner newspaper and Nexus magazine. Both publications were one of 20 nationwide to win a Gold Crown in their respective categories. The Awards Convocation for Scholastic Crown recipients took place during the 91st Scholastic Convention Friday, March 20, 2015 at Columbia University in New York City.
This is The Southerner’s second consecutive Gold Crown Award. With this honor, The Southerner has won all three top national press association awards for a high school publication – the CSPA Gold Crown, the National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker and the Quill and Scroll Gallup Award – all in the same year. This is the first time in the school’s history that this has been accomplished. This is also the first Gold Crown Award ever for the school’s pop culture magazine Nexus – after winning three consecutive Silver Crowns.
CSPA is an international student press association founded in 1925. Its goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques and award programs. A total of 1,203 newspapers, magazines, yearbooks and digital publications issued during the 2013-2014 academic year were eligible for judging in the 2015 CSPA Crown Awards Program.
For years, the award-winning student newspaper, The Southerner, a monthly newspaper written by Grady students, has garnered many individual journalism and publications awards. The newspaper has been published without interruption since 1947. In 2013, the paper’s editor-in-chief and then Grady High’s valedictorian Isabelle Taft, was named 2013 Georgia Champion Journalist by the Georgia Scholastic Press Association (GSPA). The Southerner was the only publication inducted into the NSPA All-American Hall of Fame in 2012.
About Atlanta Public Schools
Atlanta Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in the state of Georgia, serving approximately 50,000 students across 106 learning sites. The district is organized into nine K-12 clusters with 87 schools, 17 charter schools and two citywide single-gender academies, where students are offered rigorous instructional programs that foster success in school and life. For more information, visit www.atlantapublicschools.us
