Vanguard staffer honored

Matt Petrie, news editor at the Vanguard, received a second-place writing award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Gold Circle Awards, a national student journalism contest.

Petrie received the award March 18 in the general feature category for "Crossing the green line," a February 2004 article profiling professor Harry Anastasiou, a Greek Cypriot, and professor Birol Yesilada, a Turkish Cypriot, who worked together in an effort for peace in conflict-torn Cyprus.

The CSPA receives more than 10,000 entries from student journalists across the country in its annual Gold Circle Awards, which originated in 1984.

The Columbia award follows the Vanguard’s win last May of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association General Excellence Award for college newspapers.

"All of us here at the Vanguard feel that our editorial content has been improving steadily over the past couple years, and it is nice to have that recognized by our peers in the journalism community," Vanguard Editor-In-Chief Christian Gaston said.