Last week, Harker journalism students visited New York City for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Spring Convention at Columbia University, where they were presented with two CSPA Gold Crown awards for the student news website Harker Aquila and the Winged Post newspaper. The convention included workshops given by student journalists and awards ceremony for this year’s CSPA Crown winners.

Seniors Arjun Barrett, Tiffany Chang, Lavanya Subramanian, Jessica Tang, Sally Zhu and Sabrina Zhu, and juniors Edward Huang, Michelle Wei and Kevin Zhang were all presenters at the conference, where Harker students hosted a total of three sessions on topics including covering sensitive or controversial topics, apps that facilitate better coordination among newspaper staff and journalism’s ongoing “Humans of Harker” project.

Students also seized the opportunity to speak with student journalists from around the country about freedom of speech for student-run press and visit some of New York City’s most famous landmarks, including the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center.