Six InPrint staff members  received Gold Circle Awards and were ranked among the nation’s best by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Each year, CSPA asks high school newspapers from across the nation to submit their best work in various categories. Nearly 13,000 entries were submitted to this year’s Gold Circle contest.

Among those receiving an award was senior editor-in-chief, Ellie Cowger, for her collaboration page with 2013 editor-in-chief Amy Rooker and 2013 business manager Adam Tokarsky. The award was for a two page election spread.

“Amy, Adam, and I spent a lot of time on this page making sure not only the content aspect of it was correct but the page design was well executed.” Cowger said. “We really took into consideration the color scheme and our graphics because we knew that is what would draw readers to the important subject.”

Another award winner was senior sports editor, Cassidy Rourke for her chocolate cupcake recipe sidebar to her story about how chocolate is actually good for athletes.

“When I was writing the story and I found out that chocolate was better for you in sports, as an athlete myself I was surprised.” Rourke said. “It took awhile to actually find a healthy recipe that wouldn’t burn you out, but both the design and the cupcakes turned out really well.”

There were others that received awards that are still on staff, including senior Allie Howell, who received a first place award for Editorial Page Design for her page on affirmative action, and junior Caitlin Heenan, who got a honorable mention for her news story “Not so Appely Ever After”.

    The Gold Circle Awards were created in 1984 to celebrate and showcase outstanding work by student writers, editors, designers, and photographers. Public and Secondary schools are judged separately, to keep the competition fair. In certain cases, depending on the quality no awards were given at all for that category.

This competition attracts schools from across the country, with each school sending its best piece for each category.These awards were given on a variety of categories, all in different sections of the newspaper. They are judged by experienced journalists and educators with context surrounding student journalism. There is a first, second, third, and honorable mentions for each category.