The BLADE staff receives Gold Medalist award from the CSPA annual critique
In May of 2015, The Wooster Blade staff submitted their newspapers to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for their annual critique.
Recently, the staff discovered their paper was recognized as a Gold Medalist recipient.
According to CSPA director Edward Sullivan, The Wooster Blade was one of about 1,200 schools evaluated for the 2014-2015 critiques.
The critiques follow a 15-page evaluation form on essentials, verbal and visual presentation to award the publications a total score out of 1,000 points. The Wooster Blade was awarded 923 points to earn the Gold Medalist recognition.
“[The critique] allows us, as a staff, to reflect on what we have learned, review and set goals for our publication for this year and also see how our publication measures up within the nation in terms of scholastic journalism,” Kristi Hiner, adviser of The Wooster Blade said.
Both Hiner and 2014-2015 co-editor-in-chief Taylor Bennington agree that the staff’s time and dedication is what resulted in the gold medal.
“We had the ultimate quality of a staff that embraced a leadership model that was centered around success. We were a success driven staff. The people wanted to promote a culture that rewarded success and after each issue, I think each person found pride in what they had accomplished,” Bennington said.
The staff hopes to continue this success in the future.
“We are going to try to implement several of our judge’s suggestions, and we will continue to uphold the qualities for which our paper was recognized as outstanding,” co-editor-in-chief Mary Grace Gorman (12) said.
The Wooster Blade has won the Gold Medal 15 times in the past and has been a Silver Medalist four times.
