Journalism students travel to Washington D.C. for Journalism Education Association conference

Last week, Nov. 5-8, four newspaper students, four yearbook students, and two advisers traveled over 800 miles to go to the JEA [Journalism Education Association] Convention to show off what they have learned and to learn more about how to make their media better.

“We got to learn a bunch of stuff, meet cool people, and had a lot of fun touring around the city,” said senior Ryan Stockton.

Along with going to informational sessions and seeing monuments, students had the opportunity to compete in Write Offs. These competitions included topics from photography to feature writing to reviews writing. Senior Molly Thal received Honorable Mention in the News Editing/Headline Writing competition, and senior Dylan Farmer received Honorable Mention for his writing in the News Writing competition.

“DC was a great experience. My favorite part is actually the fervor that other staffs bring to the convention and how infectious it is. Other parts I enjoyed were the Newseum, Union Station, and the trolley tour. We also had a special critique for the yearbook and that was enlightening,” said Kreher.

The JEA Convention had over 6000 students from around the world who are involved in newspaper, photo journalism, yearbook, and literary magazines.

“The convention was great, but being around that many high school students can be a bit much. Too much crazy for one building,” said yearbook adviser Scott Kreher.

During the convention, students were also able to go on media tours that included the Washington Post, Discovery Channel headquarters, and the Supreme Court building.Going to these various places students and advisers are able to learn more about how to improve their newspaper and yearbook.

“Mainly what I collect from the convention are small nuggets of ideas to change how Yearbook and PhotoJ are run. Not major overhauls, but practical lessons about camera check-ins/outs. Plus, several presenters let me download their PowerPoints and then I can use award-winning book examples in class; stuff I don’t have access to,” said Kreher.

While in D.C, students were given the opportunity to explore the city and see key points such as the Union Station and the national monuments.

“The night tour and seeing all the monuments was really cool. That was fun… [I liked] when we went over the billion dollar bridge. Seeing the Capitol building was really cool because it was under construction, and it looked really nice with the iron or steel piping around it,” said Stockton. 

By Brianne Lewis, Business Manager and Entertainment Editor