McLean High School's News Magazine Wins Gold Crown For Excellence

MCLEAN, VA — McLean High School’s The Highlander news magazine and website won another Gold Crown in high school hybrid news from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

McLean High School was one of only 16 schools in the nation to receive the Gold Crown, and the only school in Virginia to earn the top honor in 2023.

This is the second year in a row that The Highlander was a Gold Crown recipient for high school hybrid news.

News, magazine, yearbook and digital/online formats are all eligible for Crown Awards. Publications are judged on their excellence in design, photography, concept, coverage, and writing. A total of 805 publications were eligible for judging in this winter’s contest.

McLean High School and two other Fairfax County Public School were honored with awards in a ceremony at Columbia University on March 17.

At the ceremony, Silver Crowns were awarded to Chantilly High School’s The Purple Tide news magazine and website and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology’s tjTODAY news magazine and website.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association offers three annual competitions to honor excellence in student publishing: Medalist Critiques for written evaluation, Crown Awards for overall excellence and Gold Circle Awards for individual student recognition.

The other high schools to win a Gold Crown in the high school hybrid news category were St. Louis Park High School in St. Louis Park, Minnesota; Francis Howell North High School in Saint Charles, Missouri; Clarke Central High School in Athens, Georgia; Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles; Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California; Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas; Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland; Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, California; St. John's School in Houston; Rock Canyon High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado; McCallum High School in Austin, Texas; The American School in London in the United Kingdom; Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas; and University of Chicago Laboratory High School in Chicago.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges.