The Livewire online newspaper is an on going activity. The newspaper has been awarded various awards.This year, it’s a Gold Crown finalist through the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). Winners will be announced at the spring convention.

 During judging to be considered for a crown award, the CSPA  looks at the newspaper’s design, photography, concept, coverage and writing.

 “The newspaper has a very long standing history, it all started back at Roosevelt Junior High School back when it was the Blue and White and we printed it. That paper received a Gold Crown and had Gold rating numerous times from CSPA,” Newspaper adviser Wanda Vanish said.

 Not only did the newspaper itself win awards, many individuals did as well. The newspaper and literary magazine staff recently traveled to State College for a Pennsylvania School Press Association Regional Competition.

 Keeping in mind the newspaper staff are freshmen, at the time of the competition they didn’t have much experience writing yet. They competed against sophomores, juniors and seniors. The following students were first place finishers:

• Sarah Harmon for Editorial Cartoon.
• Jewel Weyandt for Literary Magazine Stand-Alone Artwork
• Riley Eichenlaub for Literary poetry
• Jensen Schleich for Literary Magazine Cover

 These students are now eligible to compete at a state level.

 This will be Vanish’s nineteenth year being the adviser for the newspaper. She has won many awards herself for the paper.

 “In 2010 I was really honored to get the Gold Key from CSPA and that was a pretty big deal. PSPA also recognized me. I have a Keystone award and held offices for both local and national journalism associations,” Vanish said.

 Some students in newspaper and literary magazine will be traveling to New York City in March for the Columbia Scholastic Press Convention. There, the staff will find out more about the Gold Crown winner.

“Getting awarded is good for two things, it lets us know that we’re doing a good job. It’s not just us sitting in the classroom and saying ‘Our paper’s doing a good job.’ But there’s a certain set of criteria we’re striving toward doing well with, and we know what they are. It’s also someone else giving the students feed back other than me. It’s not just the adviser saying ‘Hey, you guys have a good paper.’  There’s someone else looking at it and telling them what they think,” Vanish said.

 Anyone can access the newspaper, but only students of the school can comment on the stories, blogs, columns, editorials and photos, Students can login by using their school district emails that were provided at the beginning of the year for Google Docs. Their password is also their Google Docs password they made at the beginning of the year.