MIDDLETOWN -- Ten members of the staff of Middletown High School's national award-winning student newspaper, Blue Prints, will attend the 89th Annual Columbia Scholastic Press Convention in New York City March 22-24.
The group will stay at a midtown Manhattan Hotel and attend workshops all three days of the convention on the campus of Columbia University.
The convention is widely regarded as the best high school journalism convention in the country and annually draws between 3,000 and 4,000 students and their advisers from across the United States.
The workshops are presented by advisers of award-winning publications and experts in the field of print and electronic journalism.
Adviser Ann Buchanan called the convention "academically rigorous" and that her students learn a great deal from attending as many workshops as they can out of more than 200 offered.
The convention runs from morning to late afternoon each day and includes topics on press law, design, and many "how to" workshops on every aspect of newspaper and online production.
Blue Prints has won many Gold Medalist awards from Columbia dating back to 1989. A Gold Medalist Award means a paper ranks among the top 15 percent in the country. The extensive written critique is completed by a judge from another part of the country over the summer, and is broken down into categories.
When a paper receives All-Columbian in a category of the critique, that places the paper in the top 3-5 percent in the nation in that category. Blue Prints has won many such awards.
This is Buchanan's fifth year as adviser and the paper was a Gold Medal paper in each of her previous four years.
The editorial staff of the paper includes Editor in Chief senior David Westby, News Editor junior Sam Angle, Editorial page Editor junior Olive Kuhn, Features Editor junior Haley McDonald, Sports Editor senior Jarrod Zimmer, Asst. Sports Editor junior Max Molski, Entertainment Editor senior Taylor Brenchak, Photography Editor senior Gina Jarzabek, Graphics Editor senior Ava Varszegi and Business Manager senior Tom McAlear.
Blue Prints, which produces six 24-page editions each year, has a staff of more than 50 students.
