Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques and award programs.
The CSPA offers three annual competitions: Medalist Critiques, Crown Awards and Gold Circle Awards. Joining the CSPA is how a student publication, either print or digital, enters one or more of those competitions.
CSPA membership includes evaluating the PRIOR school year (2019-20) publications to give the adviser and staff a baseline against which to make improvements DURING the membership year (2020-21).
Enrolling as a CSPA member for 2020-21 gets your work from the 2019-2020 academic year evaluated.
Medalist Critiques offer a detailed written analysis of your print or digital publication, with recommendations for improvements. The results are returned with one of three ratings: Gold Medalist, Silver Medalist or Bronze Medalist.
Crown Awards recognize overall excellence in either print or digital student publications, chosen by a panel of judges working as a team. Entries are compared against one another with similar age and experience levels such as high school yearbooks against other high school yearbooks, and so forth. There are NO written results returned to individual publications.
Gold Circle Awards recognize individual achievement by students from any CSPA member in many categories. Each CSPA member can submit as many as 30 individual entries as part of their membership. Additional entries can be submitted at a special member rate. Certificates are awarded to First, Second or Third Place and up to three additional Certificates of Merit are given for honorable mention in each category. Gold Circle Award entries require separate submission by June 11th (print news and magazine entries) or by October 1st (all yearbook and digital entries).
Your membership will be considered "pending" until CSPA receives your payment, your completed membership profile AND your materials for judging.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020 - Wednesday, June 30, 2021
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