Uncaged newspaper and website have been awarded a national Crown Finalist from CSPA (Columbia University) for the fourth consecutive year. The staff will learn if their crown is silver or gold in the ceremony in New York City in March 2020.

The team was acknowledged as a hybrid for the print news magazine and the online news website that provides different types of news and storytelling. The online source is required to offer various media designed and coded in digital modes that differ from print to earn this prestigious award.

 

Student staffers Jordan Myers, Hannah Smith, Mackenzye Yannella, Abigail Douglas, Morgan King, Frederick Choate, Makenna Allison, Tylin Ayres, Jacey Gustafson, Elizabeth Platte, Amelia Pulley, Bella Roberts, Alex Rose, Sarah Steenbeke, Rachel Monroe, Samantha Stitt, Christopher Kultner and Mickenzi Merriweather were lead by editors-in-chief Hannah Bolton and Logan Connolly.

 

Publications are judged in a “head-to-head comparison by a panel of judges over several days,” Edmund Sullivan, CSPA executive director, said. The judges meet “in a large room with much walking around and much discussion, sometimes an argument. However, all decisions are eventually reached through consensus,” Sullivan said. Crowns are awarded at the discretion of this group based on the merits of the publications according to Sullivan.