CARLSBAD–Global Vantage, a print and online magazine run collaboratively by students from Pacific Ridge School, Kibera Girls Soccer Academy (Kibera, Kenya), and Canyon Crest Academy, has been honored with the Columbia Scholastic Press Associations’ Edmund J. Sullivan Award.

Edmund J. Sullivan, the longtime Executive Director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), says his namesake award is meant to recognize those student journalists who “pursue innovative ways to present the truth on behalf of their audiences.” This is the first time since 2007 that the discretionary award has been given.

Pacific Ridge sophomores Tony Oliverio (San Marcos), Gabe Piscitello (Encinitas), Caitlin Bowen (San Marcos), Mina Fardeen (Carlsbad), and Vincent Wang (Carlsbad) and Pacific Ridge alumnus Dillon Lerach (Rancho Santa Fe) along with Global Journal Project Executive Director Steven Le and Pacific Ridge School faculty advisor Chris Burman, accepted the award on behalf of the chapter during CSPA’s spring conference at Columbia University in late March. Global Vantagealso received the Gold Crown – the highest recognition given by the organization –  in the category of hybrid magazine, one that exists simultaneously as a print and an online publication.

Global Vantage demonstrates the effectiveness of a student-run community-based storytelling platform.” Sullivan said. “This is truly global journalism.”

The Edmund J. Sullivan award and Gold Crown award are the most recent in a long list of accolades for the student-run magazine. In October, several members of the Global Vantage staff received CSPA Gold Circle awards for individual articles, and the entire staff received the Specialty Magazine Overall Design award for Issue 6. Last year, the magazine received a Gold Medal – placing in the top 1 percent of entries – as part of CSPA’s extensive Medalist Critique. The magazine was also named one of four overall winners in the 2012 U.S. Department of Education Startup Challenge.

Global Vantage represents the founding chapter of the Global Journal Project (GJP), a nonprofit organization that began as a service learning class at Pacific Ridge School. Each GJP chapter joins one private school and one public or charter school in the same geographical area to one international school. Students from the three schools collect and edit stories from other students, teachers, parents, and the general public. Together they also raise money to produce the print magazine and maintain the website. Each magazine becomes “a shared voice” for the three school communities – bringing together perspectives from across the world.

 Global Vantage is a print and online magazine founded at Pacific Ridge School. The publication is run collaboratively by students from Pacific Ridge, Canyon Crest Academy, and Kibera Girls Soccer Academy. The magazine represents the founding chapter of The Global Journal Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing stories and forming relationships across international and cultural boundaries by raising awareness of global issues through the perspectives of member communities. The profits earned by the chapters support community-based educational events and member-selected philanthropic projects.

 Opened in the fall of 2007, Pacific Ridge School is a non-profit, independent middle and high school located in the North County, San Diego. With the distinctive mission of building a community that fosters academic excellence, ethical responsibility and global engagement, Pacific Ridge offers a first-rate educational experience to prepare students for college and a purposeful life. Pacific Ridge School does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, creed, or national origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, and other administered programs.

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”ZMTGu32FZziMLH2TlnseMoGdB3LqiOrN”]