After a brief hiatus, the return of Wilbraham & Monson Academy's "Rubicon" was a triumphant one as the 2015 publication earned a Gold Medal Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in late October.
The "Rubicon" received honors in all three categories (essentials, visual and verbal), and earned 991 points out of the 1,000-point scoring system.
"The staff, for their first time working on a literary magazine, put out a special magazine," said Heidi Ostendarp, who served as the publication's faculty advisor.
"Considering this is the first "Rubicon" in recent years, we're really pleased with the high quality of the publication we were able to put out. What a great starting place to be for "Rubicon" 2016. The students will just be building on the strengths of last year's issue."
And last year's issue had many strengths, ranging from the cover to the writing to the art to the editing.
"Your staff's exemplary skills included application of (Associated Press) rules, mastery of layout design, and publication of various art and literary selections," the Columbia Scholastic Press Association said in its summary.
The 76-page art magazine included 24 writing pieces and more than 30 images. The "Rubicon" staff included: Yutong Zou '15 (editor), Ye Lim Kim '18, Junwoo "Lucas" Kang '17, Jisang Kim '17 and Hays Maynard '18.
The following students contributed a piece of prose, poetry or artwork to the award-winning publication: Julia Beech '13, Shawn Boston '15, Lili Brook '16, Annika Bruce '17, Sara Burke '15, Mary Callahan '15, Emily Carson '15, Hannah Clewes '15, Lin "Catherine" Dong '16, Emily Dromgold '17, Maddy Duke '15, Charlie Evert '15, Marissa Fabbo '17, Andres Feng '15, Risa Fugetsu '18, Nick Gilfor '14, Andrew Goncalves '15, Nanako Honda '15, Brian Kennedy '15, Emma Kindblom '17, Harrison Kroessler '14, Adam Kugalmass '19, Peter Labbe '17, Nguyen "Winner" Le '15, Mina Lee '17, Ju "Jan" Li '15, Heather Little '13, Feiyang "Bill" Liu '18, Shiyin "Sally" Liu '18, Aaron Louis '15, Drew Mele '15, Colin O'Brien '16, Megan Pehoviak '14, Daniel Qin-Dong '17, Yi "Sally" Qiu '16, Syd Reilly '17, Atticus Russell '18, Julian Santos '15, Yulia Sazonenko '15, Yi Shi '17, Alina Shirley '15, Najma Shy '15, Aparna Sivakumar '15, Elias Skillings '17, Jon Vogt '15, Arnelle Williams '13, Yuhan Zhang '18 and Muyi "Jennifer" Zhao '16.