Six Wakefield students will travel to Columbia University in New York City for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) annual conference, on Thursday and Friday, March 16 and 17. Attending will be one student from the yearbook staff, junior Lyndsey Morgan, and five editors of the school's literary/art magazine Talisman: senior and current editor-in-chief Kelly Davidson of Warrenton, junior Julia Petty of Centreville, and sophomores Erica Eickhoff of Delaplane, Gillian Douple of The Plains, and Kendra Riddleberger of Middleburg. In addition to participating in the conference, the five Talisman editors will also be accepting the prestigious Crown Award given to the 2005 Talisman, at an awards convocation on Friday afternoon. The CSPA judges magazines, newspapers, and yearbooks for over 1700 member schools each year, both public and private. This year, a total of 36 Crowns were awarded to magazines nationwide. The entire mid-Atlantic region garnered only six of these, with Wakefield being joined by one other Virginia school, three Maryland schools, and one District school. This is the second time in four years that Talisman has received a Crown Award.

All five girls worked on last year's winning magazine, and are currently engaged in producing the 2006 edition.