---

The recognition came during the 2016 Spring Convention awards ceremony held in New York earlier this month. Fresno Christian was one of six high schools across the country selected for the Gold Crown award in the daily digital newspaper category. 

“I run The Feather like a business and I trust my students to do whatever I ask them to do,” said Greg Stobbe, advisor for the paper. “I tell them to get me a story and they figure out what they need to do to get it, from scheduling interviews to taking photographs. Really, what I’m doing is training these students to be hired even before they go to college.”

This is the fourth consecutive year The Feather has won the Gold Grown award and the fifth title in seven years. 

“It’s a lot of stress to compete at this level,” said Kori Friesen, co-advisor for the paper. “This year, to stay at the forefront, we put up a brand new website and we had no idea how it would be received. Now, after winning the award, we know we made a good decision. But it was a lot of extra work to get it competition ready.”

The digital student paper is also a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association’s (NSPA) awards, which will take place in Los Angeles next month. 

“This is the granddaddy of all high school journalism awards,” Stobbe said. “The last time we received NSPA recognition was in 2013, and this year we are hoping to bring home the Pacemaker award, which is truly the highest honor any high school journalism team could expect to win.”