The last time Canyon High School received a Crown Award, the current newspaper editor-in-chief had not yet been born. Now, she is planning a trip to New York City to accept one.

Canyon High School’s online newspaper, “The Eagle’s Tale Online,” has been named a finalist for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Awards and will receive either a Gold or Silver Crown from the association in March at the CSPA national convention.

“At first, I wasn’t aware of the magnitude of the award,” senior and editor-in-chief Tasha Brown said. “Mrs. Smith seemed excited so I was excited. But I didn’t really understand how important the award was. There was a group text among the editors and everyone seemed excited. It really hit me when Mrs. Smith texted that we might go to New York City to accept the award. The fact that we are actually traveling to New York for a little award shows it’s not so little.”

The online newspaper placed in the top 14 of the online-only newspaper entries nationwide. By the time the awards season ends, approximately 1,400 newspapers, magazines, yearbooks and digital publications will have competed in the Crown Awards.

“I was so shocked that I first thought I’d misread the email,” newspaper adviser Laura Smith said. “I had to click the link to the actual CSPA website before I convinced myself it was true. To have a staff win a CSPA Crown Award is very special; it’s something you might dream of but certainly never actually expect to see happen.”

The website was judged on writing/editing, navigation, content, concept, photography, art and graphics and interactivity of works published between December of 2013 and Nov. 1, 2014.

“This award also shows how the quality of our site this year has improved,” Brown said. “I believe the writing more than anything else helped us win this award. Also, the staff this year is fantastic, a great staff.  Last year’s staff played a large part in this as well. I think both Cortlyn Dees and Kori Adair really started us down this path.”

Smith said this is the first Crown award received by the newspaper staff, but eight prior CSPA Gold Circle awards have been given to individuals from Canyon High for yearbook, newspaper writing and photography.

“Four seniors who graduated in 2014 were named honorable mention in off-campus opinion writing last year,” Smith said. “We have received the gold medalist rating for both yearbook and newspaper for years but I had no idea we were even close to winning a Crown Award. The only other Crown Award won by Canyon High School was for the 1997 yearbook.”

Staff members will travel to Columbia University to accept the award March 20.

“The editors of the 1997 yearbook went to New York to the national convention to receive their award at Columbia University,” Smith said. “I’ve always thought that if I ever had a staff actually manage to win, I would try to take them to New York so they can receive their award in person.”

The Columbia School of Journalism was founded in 1912 by bequest of Joseph Pulitzer. The Crown Awards are the highest awards given to publications by CSPA each year.

“Some people call them the Pulitzer Prizes of scholastic journalism,” Smith said. “The first Pulitzer Prizes were given by Columbia in 1917 and the CSPA was established in 1925.”

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association was established when editors and staff members of secondary schools began meeting in the metropolitan area in New York. They began to organize a contest to evaluate student-run newspapers and magazines across the nation. Since 1925, more than 125,000 publications have been evaluated and more than 340,000 delegates have attended the annual CSPA conventions and workshops.

“I am so very proud of the students on staff,” Smith said. “Not only are they excellent journalists, they are also quality people who work well as a team and respect one another. They are creative, responsible and demonstrate the ability to take constructive criticism and improve. In addition, the students who graduated last year share in this award, and those leaders blazed the way for those who will come after them.”