This fall, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) announced the 2018 Gold Circle Awards for excellence in journalism for work published in student publications. Nicholas Lorentzen ’20, Tina Guo ’19, and Michael Zhang ’21 received top honors for their individual work in last year’s The Hotchkiss Record. Lorentzen won first place in the Single Sport News Photography category for his image titled, “Color Run,” depicting students crossing the finish line at the color run last spring. Zhang won first place in the category of Sidebar Writing, for his piece titled “The Danger of Complacency,” and Guo won a certificate of merit in the Cartoon Portfolio of Work, for her cartoons in three separate issues.

Founded in 1925, the CSPA aims to celebrate those students around the nation whose digital mediums or print pieces are worthy of recognition. The CSPA is composed of teachers and advisors who promote student press at both the high school and college level. Each year, the Association gives out awards to individual students and to school publications that are members of the CSPA. The Gold Circle Awards, a specific category of awards, offers 166 different categories for submission, and this year there were a total of 11,493 entries. Experienced judges, knowledgeable in the realm of journalism, and more specifically, in the world of student journalism, then determine the winners of each category. The 2018 Gold Circle Awards consider entries that were published between June 13, 2017, and June 10, 2018.

In 1994, Hotchkiss students Tom Dolby, Ian Johnson, Sarah Levy, and Lakshimi Rengarajan won awards for their pieces written in The Whipping Post, a former school magazine. The Whipping Post also won a Silver Crown award that year, placing their magazine in the top 5% of evaluated entries that year. This year’s awards are the first wins for The Hotchkiss Record since 1994.