Crown Award Finalist

Memorial High School’s impressive and richly illustrated 2012 yearbook, Reata, has been named a Crown Award finalist among collegiate and secondary school print publications by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association(CSPA).

As a 2013 Crown Award finalist, the high school yearbook will be awarded either a Gold or Silver Crown Award later this month. Either way, the highly stunning to read and browse, 568-page Reata clearly ranks as one of the best yearbooks across the nation.

Only 78 yearbooks across America were Crown Award finalists. More than 1.300 print, digital or hybrid publications in the 2011-2012 academic year were eligible for the Crown Awards program. Memorial’s 2012 yearbook marked the 50th anniversary of the high school, too.

The advertising staff sold more than 260 pages of student “Last Words,” which include full-page family tributes to Memorial graduates. Reata’s adviser and yearbook instructor, Holly Hartman, and current student co-editors, Holly Hepper and Ellie Hopper, will attend the CSPA annual convention March 20-23 in New York City. During the Columbia University convention, the three will learn on March 22 if their Memorial yearbook has won either a Gold or Silver Crown Award.

“This particular yearbook has won both the most awards and the highest possible awards of any yearbook since I have been here,” says Ms. Hartman She has been yearbook teacher and adviser since 2006.

“I am proud of my staffs every year because they always produce such an impressive book, but the 2012 staff created a book that really is one of the best student publications I’ve seen in a long time…and the students deserve 100 percent of the credit."

They did it all and did an amazing job,” Hartman says. The last Crown Award won by Memorial’s Reata was in the 1990s. In addition to the distinguished Columbia Scholastic Press award, the 2012 Reata has earned an impressive All-American Rating with Five Marks of Distinction from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). It was also nominated for a Star Award by the Texas UIL Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC).

The 2011 Memorial yearbook won both a Star nomination and Distinguished Merit Rating from ILPC. It also won a NSPA First Class Rating with Three Marks of Distinction.

The 2012 yearbook editor-in-chief was Macy Livingston, who now attends the University of Texas at Austin. Ellie Hopper and Maryam Amjadi were design editors; Holly Hepper was assistant-editor-in-chief. Photography editor was Tricia Curry.

The 2012 Reata staff included 36 female students and top photographer, Timothy Davis. In all, 1,600 copies of the 2012 Reata were printed by Taylor Publishing. The book sold for $60-$70, based on sales date.