Congratulations to Roxbury High School's student newspaper and yearbook staff.

For the fourth time in six years, the Roxbury Review has achieved the Gold Medalist ranking from Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) in its annual critique of school newspapers.

In addition to achieving the highest ranking, the Review received All-Columbian Honors in every categories, including coverage; writing and editing; graphic presentation; and business operations, indicating special merit in these areas. Altogether, the Review accumulated 989 out of a possible 1,000 points.

“Critiques are useful tools for measuring a publication’s quality, and allow the staff to use that tool to set goals for future achievement,” said Jane Hopper, journalism teacher and the Review’s adviser. “Even though the Review was given a very high score, there are always ways to make the newspaper even better. The critique helps to point the way.”

Review staff members also received 15 writing and photography awards this year in the Garden State Scholastic Press Association’s annual newspaper competition.

Dani Cummings won three awards, first place for news writing for a story on problems with lockers; second place, reviews and entertainment; and second place, column writing; Carol McLaughlin won third place, editorial writing, which she shared with Amanda Travers, a 2007 graduate; also two honorable mentions, one for news writing and two for editorial writing; Kelsey Zenna, second place, editorial writing; Ted Koutsoubas, second place, photography; Kathy Peng, third place, editorial cartooning; Zac Garripoli, third place, news writing, and honorable mention, feature writing; Sophie Guderian, honorable mention, opinion writing; Scarlett Sullivan, a 2007 graduate, honorable mention, column writing; and Nicole Mandracchia, honorable mention, news writing.

Also entered in the GSSPA competition was the 2007 Echo yearbook, which received an honorable mention in its evaluation. “The yearbook’s goal was to make improvements over the previous year’s book, and the honorable mention award reflects that,” said Hopper, who is co-adviser with William Martin, media specialist.