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CSPA is affiliated with the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in the City of New York.

Veteran adviser and 2000 Dow Jones Teacher of the Year Robin Sawyer says Marie Harris, her journalism teacher, was her inspiration.

Sawyer worked on her high school paper at Dan River High School in Danville, Virginia where Harris was the adviser.

“I learned everything about First Amendment rights, advertising, how to write and edit stories, production and staff management.” Sawyer said.

When Sawyer recently decided to transfer to a new charter school in North Carolina she suggested a former student, Sara Neal should take her place.

Sawyer said, “In my heart, I hoped that I might have inspired her the way Marie Harris had inspired me.” Neal got the job.

Not all advisers started out as teachers.

As a radio journalist in Washington state, Vincent De Miero thought he might like teaching journalism after covering a local high school’s controversy over a protest t-shirt students wore to a game.

 “I really enjoyed it because of the conflict and the passion that the parties brought to the fray,” he explained.

 A few years later, just before he left for a 100-mile road trip to a new radio job, he found out his new boss had just sold the station.

“I told my wife that radio wasn’t the kind of business that we could raise a family in, so I started filling out teaching applications. And when I applied for my present job I made it clear I was interested in advising publications,” said de Miero, adviser at Mountlake Terrace High School near Seattle.

“I love coming home late after a crunch night, I love hugging my students when they’re upset and high fiving them when they’ve won an award,” said de Miero.

While writing obituaries and working the night shift at the Miami Herald, Claudia Solis was also substitute teaching at a local high school.

“When an English position opened up I decided to continue freelancing and take the teaching job,” she explains. “Working with the student newspaper gave me a chance to cover all aspects of journalism not just obits or business, “says Solis, an adviser for five years.

Shirley Yaskin is a former newspaper, yearbook and broadcast adviser from Miami, FL, and now teaches at the college level.  She is a past president of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association.