Mason’s Lasso a Winner, Awaiting the Color of Their Crown

Mason's award winning Lasso Online

By SCOTT TAYLOR
Falls Church Times Staff

March 2, 2010

One of the facts of life in the newspaper business is readers will offer up praise and contempt in equal measure.  A healthy mix of each in a newsroom’s mailbox is a sure sign they are doing a good job.

Another sign a newspaper measures-up are peer-reviewed awards for journalism.  The students at George Mason High School who produce Lasso Online may compete one day for the Pulitzer Prize, the James Beard Award, or GLAAD Media Awards but they can add an honor to their resumes today: Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Finalist.

The CSPA was first organized at Columbia University in 1924 and the Crown Awards constitute the highest recognition for overall excellence to a student print or online publication.  Over 1,500 newspapers, magazines and yearbooks published during the 2008-2009 academic year were eligible for the 2010 Crown Awards.  Lasso Online was one of 27 internet based high school newspapers named as a finalist.

“Technically, this means we have already won,” said Joy Wagener, Mason’s Lasso Online sponsor.  “In two weeks, the judges will determine if we’re of silver crown or gold crown quality but both levels are winners.”

According to CSPA’s website: “The Awards Convocation for Scholastic Crown recipients will take place during CSPA’s 86^th annual Convention, on Friday, March 19, 2010, in the Roone Arledge Auditorium of the Alfred Lerner Student Center on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.”

The Falls Church Times will provide an update once the final awards are announced.

George Mason High School’s Lasso Online