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The Florida Scholastic Press Association, or FSPA, is a convention held annually for journalists to participate in competitions and attend workshops to better their craft. FSPA’s primary goal is to help educate, train and support scholastic journalists and to help them grow as journalists.
One of the many Journalists of the Year awards that FSPA offers is the Todd C. Smith Student Journalist of the Year. Knight Writers Print Managing Editor Cecilia Cheng (’24) submitted her best works and placed second in the state of Florida. Cheng has been in Newspaper since her sophomore year and wasn’t initially interested in the topic when she was first placed into the class, but later found out she had a new profound love for it and has been in the class ever since.
“I’m really excited to win this. I think it’s a really big honor and I didn’t expect this at all because it’s out of state and I was super surprised when I found out,” Cheng said.
Cheng had to put together multiple pieces of her work from the time she started journalism to now into a portfolio to showcase to the judges. In her portfolio there was her writing, designs, social media work and her leadership position. Once she had found out she won second place for Journalist of the Year out of the whole state she was ecstatic and so were her classmates.
“When she texted me the news I quite literally fell out of my chair, so that was very exciting. I can’t say it was terribly unexpected though because she’s an incredibly good Print Managing Editor, and she does a lot for this publication,” said Co-Editor-in-Chief Vikram Sambasivan (’24).
Cheng is surrounded by a supportive environment of people who are exhilarated and proud of her big accomplishment and can’t wait to see her grow even more as a journalist. As you can see Cheng puts forth all of the characteristics and aspects that FSPA stands for.
“I think placing as a finalist in the student journalist of the year is an amazing accomplishment that anyone could be proud of. I think that Cecilia is one of the best representatives of Robinson journalism that we have ever had,” said Advisor Nancy Webster. “She is a leader who leads by doing and everyone knows what to expect when she’s doing things for print, and she isn’t afraid to do the work herself.”
