The Saratoga Falcon was one of 13 high school newspapers in the country to win the “High School Newspaper Gold Crown Award” from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) for the 2014-2015 school year. The award was presented at Columbia University on March 18.

“We are immensely grateful for being selected for this prestigious award,” 2015 alumna and former editor-in-chief Deepti Kannan said. “It serves as a testament to the impressive dedication of all of our staff members to make the Falcon the best publication it can be.”

The CSPA judges high school newspapers holistically, considering all their elements: photography, reporting, style, design, writing, layout and more.

“As compared to other high school papers, I think the Falcon has a really great diversity of stories and packages and that's what set us apart,” 2015 alumna and former editor-in-chief Sabrina Chen said. “Our content is consistently unique, and we're also solid with layout and graphics.”

This is the second year in a row the paper has won the Gold Crown.

“[Winning the CSPA Gold Crown] demonstrates that the kids in the past couple years have really done a good job in a lot of different areas — from writing and visual presentation to the approach to stories,” newspaper adviser Mike Tyler said.