To mark its centennial year in 2025, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association will honor individuals who have profoundly contributed to and have had a sustained impact on scholastic journalism education. The Centennial Awards honor individuals in five categories: Innovation, Impact, Lifetime Achievement in Scholastic Journalism, CSPA Alumni Achievement Award, and CSPA Service. CSPA wishes to thank its Centennial advisory board and Centennial Awards committee for their hard work and dedication to this momentous task.
All awardees are invited to attend a special luncheon on Friday, March 21, 2025, at the CSPA 101st Annual Spring Convention and Centennial celebration, where they will be honored for their service.
CSPA ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
CSPA is proud of its program participants. Many who have attended our programs have gone on to success elsewhere, whether in journalism or other industries. This award recognizes an individual for whom the teachings, skills, and values of journalism and CSPA have contributed to success in their current work.
WINNERS
Meredith Averill
Meredith Averill is an award-winning television writer-producer. She most recently served as co-showrunner, creator, and executive producer of Netflix’s Locke & Key, based on the bestselling graphic novel series. Averill is a two-time Golden Globe nominee and a four-time nominee for the Writers’ Guild of America Award. In 2019, she was awarded the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement. Averill attended CSPA Spring Conventions as a student editor and returns as a speaker at CSPA events.
Lauren Blum
Lauren Blum is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience covering a wide variety of home, decor, lifestyle, fashion, and beauty topics for several national magazines. She has been a regular CSPA Summer Journalism Workshop speaker, CSPA Gold Circle judge, and CSPA Spring Convention speaker.
Jenny Creech
Jenny Creech is the adviser for the award-winning ReMarker newspaper and Marksmen yearbook at St. Mark’s School of Texas. Creech, a former sportswriter and editor, was named Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association in 2019. She’s won various APSE and APME awards, including a top award for investigative journalism in 2017. Creech was awarded CSPA’s Gold Key Award in 2008 and the Joseph M. Murphy Award by the organization in 2020. She is the current president of the CSPAA and is a CSPA Summer Journalism Workshop instructor.
Heather Dinich
Heather Dinich covers the College Football Playoffs as a senior writer on ESPN.com and as a studio analyst. She is a regular contributor on ESPN GameDay radio, SportsCenter, and the Championship Drive podcast throughout the season. She speaks at the CSPA Summer Journalism Workshop, mentors students, and attended the CSPA Spring Convention as a student editor.
Michelle Hoover
Michelle Hoover has been a CSPA Spring Convention speaker and a CSPA Summer Journalism Workshop instructor and judge. She founded Baem Leadership, a strategic consultancy that advises global corporations, midstage start-ups, and purpose-driven organizations on empowering and emboldening their leaders—especially first-generation professionals—to lead themselves and their teams more effectively.
Kevin Lerner
Kevin Lerner began his publication career as a student at Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas, where he served as editor of the school’s literary and art magazine, élan, a publication member of CSPA. Under his leadership, the magazine included the first compact disc of music, poetry, and a radio play from students at the school. He now serves as a journalism professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Marist University in Poughkeepsie, New York. He is the author of Provoking the Press and editor of Insights on Literary Journalism. He judges CSPA Gold Circles and has served as a CSPA Crown judge for more than 10 years.
Aaron Sharockman
Aaron Sharockman is the executive director of PolitiFact, the largest fact-checking organization in the United States, which is part of the Poynter Institute. Sharockman leads the growth and development of PolitiFact, manages its outreach and news partnerships, and oversees new initiatives. He was the 1999 National Student Journalist of the Year and a 2016–17 Reynolds Fellow at the University of Missouri. He spoke at and attended CSPA Spring Conventions.
Randy Yeip
Randy Yeip is the data visualization director at Business Insider. Prior to that, he was the deputy graphics director at The Wall Street Journal. As a student in high school, he attended the CSPA convention, and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Michigan State University. While in college he worked on Michigan Interscholastic Press Association activities and was instrumental in creating a Society of News Design student chapter. He has served as a judge for various state and national scholastic journalism competitions, including the CSPA Crowns and Gold Circle Awards. He received the CSPA 2018 Joseph M. Murphy Award.