Every school year, the Co-Editors in Chief and Managing Editor of The A-Blast discuss and select where to submit the publication for nomination.

One of the options that has been chosen often is the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

The CSPA is an international student press association which promotes student journalists through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques and award programs.

This year, The A-Blast head staff chose to submit to the CSPA again. For the second year in a row, The A-Blast received the Gold Crown for High School Hybrid news.

The A-Blast, along with 19 other publications, were only one of two hybrid newspapers from Virginia to receive this distinction. Additionally, The A-Blast was the only Gold Crown winner for hybrid news in Fairfax County.

Supervised by Alan Weintraut and led by Jude Nanaw, Kim Vaides and Casey Nguyen, The A-Blast has continued to improve year after year.

The A-Blast is entirely student managed, so credit for awards go to all the student journalists who work to produce their best work.

“We strive to produce the best news source possible, whether it be online or in print,” co-editor Jude Nanaw said.

After everyone’s hard work so far this year, it was nice for the staff to reap the benefits.

“It was nice to receive recognition for our collaborative efforts,” Managing Editor Casey Nguyen said.

Finally, the record setting Editor in Chief Jude Nanaw gave a final piece of advice for next year’s staff.

“In order to be successful as far as the Gold Crown distinction, it took a collective staff effort,” Nanaw said. “Everything from day to day online posting and keeping social media platforms updated along with an outstanding print edition plays a role in reaching this level.”