Debra Klevens

After receiving their award, students pose for a photo in the lobby of the Park Central Hotel. The Pathfinder won the Silver Crown Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. “Last year we won a Gold Crown for yearbook and I wanted newspaper to finally get recognition for all of the hard work that they have done to build the program into what it is today,” Klevens said.

After being nominated for a Crown award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Pathfinder editorial board traveled to New York March 14-17 to receive the award and live the New York journalist experience.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association gives college and high school publications awards for newspaper, yearbook and other media platforms.

“We won the Silver Crown Award, there’s a silver one and a gold one,” Publications Adviser Debra Klevens said. “Anybody that is nominated either earns a silver or a gold, but not many schools get nominated across the country. It’s the first time in 19 years that we’ve ever been nominated so it was a huge accomplishment.”

The trip to New York was over $800 a person and the editorial board fundraised to pay for a portion of their travel.

“The students in newspaper decided that they wanted to do multiple fundraisers,” Klevens said. “They raised money to duct tape a faculty member to the wall, and that raised some money, but where they raised the most money was by offering classes to the community using the skills that they have. For three Thursday nights in a row we offered different classes from ‘How to Use Your iPhone’ to ‘How to Use Google,’ and parents and community members attended and made donations. They raised over $1200 doing that.”

For students on the editorial board, the hard work put into raising money paid off in more ways than one.

“The thing that I got the most from the trip was a more solid feeling of what I want to do for the rest of my life,” senior and Photo Editor Katie Spillman said. “New York really solidified that I belong in this type of community, working for this type of company. Being able to go on that trip and have that feeling of inner peace made the trip feel so valid.”

Even for students not entering into journalism as a career, the trip was still beneficial in that students were exposed to the world that they will face after high school.

“The trip taught me a lot about the world and what the world values and what it looks like to be successful in any industry,” senior and Managing Editor-in-Chief Betsy Wait said. “You have to advocate for yourself and be on your game all the time. If you’re not on your game, there’s a hundred different applicants looking for the same job. You have to be confident and know what you want.”

By going to New York to receive the Silver Crown Award, Pathfinder editors were able to see the work of other publications around the country.

“It was really humbling to win the award because it doesn’t have much to do with me,” Wait said. “It has everything to do with the staffers and that they care and put in the hard work. It made me excited for next year’s paper. I know that the paper will be in good hands after I graduate and that there are people who really care about what they’re doing and care about reaching people through journalism.”

Receiving the award was a small part of the New York City experience. The editors spent the majority of their experience visiting large scale publications.

“We got to see how the digital revolution is really taking journalism by storm and that was really powerful to see how young people are inspiring change,” Klevens said. “They’re are looking to the young people for the progress and the change and the innovation.”

The students visited American Express, Glamour Magazine, and Insider Inc. where they were connected with alumni and former journalism students.

“We started off by going to American Express,” Klevens said. “I have a former student named Erin Maxwell who works there. The last day we went to Insider Inc. which is part of Business Insider. Abby Narishkin, one of my former Editors-in-Chief, just started there in August, and was hired on last week as a full time employee. I really enjoyed seeing her be so successful, that was a career highlight for me.”

Students on the editorial board not only enjoyed their time on the trip, but also enjoy their day to day life working for the Pathfinder.

“This publication has definitely shaped me as a person,” Spillman said. “I think that when you start in publications you don’t really understand the family that you’re joining, and to be on the editorial board is a big deal for me because I get to work with people who are just as passionate as I am about this online site.