Alum Wins Journalism Teaching Award

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) will present its Charles R. O’Malley Award to Esther Wojcicki in 2011.

The awards will be presented during a special Advisers Awards Luncheon on Friday, March 18, 2011 in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library on the Columbia University campus in New York City. The luncheon is presented as part of CSPA’s 87th annual Convention, taking place from March 16-18, 2011 at Columbia University.

Esther Wojcicki has been a journalism and English teacher at Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, Cailf., for the past 27 years, where she built the journalism program from a small group of 20 students in 1985 to the largest high school journalism program in the nation, winning major national and international recognition.

The publications have won Gold and Silver Crowns from Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Pacemaker Award and Hall of Fame Award from National Scholastic Press Association, and best in nation from Time Magazine in 2003. The website was honored with two Webby Awards in 2005.

She is chairperson of the Board of Creative Commons and a strong advocate of Open Education Resources and Creative Commons licensing. She is a 2009 MacArthur Foundation Research Award recipient on the Student Journalism 2.0 project. She has won multiple awards, including California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2002 California Teacher of the Year and 2009 CSPA Gold Key Award.

The Charles R. O’Malley Award recognizes “a sustained record of outstanding teaching” in support of student journalism or student publishing. It is intended to be the CSPA’s highest accolade in support of the core function of teaching as related to student-practiced journalism.