Columbia’s school newspaper wins first place for the sixth year in a row

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The Columbian, Columbia High School’s student newspaper, has earned the first place award in an annual competition held by the American Scholastic Press Association for the sixth year in a row.

The national competition is open to any and all student-run newspapers from across the country. Entries are critiqued on journalistic content, journalistic decision-making, visual layout and design, photography, illustration, and overall editing. Columbia High School’s newspaper team tallied enough points in each category to take the top prize yet again.

Judges noted that CHS has “…an excellent school newspaper, which shows the creativity and journalistic knowledge of (its) reporters, writers, photographers, layout/graphics designers and adviser(s).”

The Columbian is a student-run publication whose leaders are enrolled in the production journalism course, and have earned their positions after completing the journalistic writing or computer graphics courses. 

COVID-19, the global pandemic and the school building’s closure all challenged the team’s ability to continue to produce a print version of the publication so the shift to a digital platform was necessary. The historic move marked the beginning of a new era in the institution’s more than 80-year existence.

Martina Zacker, Nicholas Shires, Noori Zubieta, Jordan Young, Sydney Rednik, Zoe Slavin, Emily Wilner, Ari Mehlman, Ruari McEwan and Jonathon Cutler made up the editorial board for the team. The art/design team members for 2019-’20 were Dana Hugel, Avery Soupios, Matt McBride, Arielle Loubier, Derek Gutierrez, Sydney Mannion, Isaac Weber, Jack Griffith, Leo Preston, Ethan Walden and Charlie Hummel. Advisers for The Columbian are Joshua Enyeart and Cindy Malhotra.

  Columbia High School