Journalism Students Experience 2012 JEA Conference

Four journalism students and two advisors at Parkway North attended the national Journalism Educators’ Association Conference in San Antonio from Nov. 14-17, 2012.

“My favorite part [about the annual conference] is always seeing how excited kids are about journalism at the end, because it’s something I can’t replicate at school,” said Yearbook advisor Scott Kreher.

After arriving in San Antonio, the members of the group received the opportunity to tour the local newspaper or television station.

“I never really know how all the ads and flyers were put into the newspapers until after the tour,” said senior Alex Herr, a student in Yearbook.

The following two days included hour-long presentations from professional journalists and advisors from across the country, along with keynote speeches from two of the featured speakers.

“[My favorite part of the conference was] taking the ideas we had and making them better by working with designs we already had,” Herr said.

Besides being beneficial for the students, the conference allowed both advisors to learn about various topics very relevant to teaching journalism on the high school level.

“It’s helpful for Yearbook because I learn about trends within the field and it’s the only time I get to focus on journalism instead of English,” Kreher said.

On the Friday afternoon of the conference, students were given the opportunity to compete in national write-off competitions. Both members of Newspaper on the trip were awarded for their efforts, with senior Kevin Graeler receiving an Honorable Mention rating in feature-writing and senior Brandon Fredman earning an Excellent rating in newswriting.

“I got lucky this year since the topic I wrote about was very relevant to me,” said Fredman. “When I wrote my article, I had a very good feeling about about my work and I felt very confident throughout the whole process.”

The group was also able to take in many of the sights around downtown San Antonio, including a tour of The Alamo.

“The Alamo was a lot different than I expected,” Herr said. “I didn’t expect it to be in the middle of a busy, populated city. It was creepy knowing the fact that the massacre had happened and we were just standing there.”

Although all four of the students who attended the conference this year are seniors, the group came back encouraging underclassmen to go on the trip next year.

“Think about the sessions you are going to take,” advised Herr. “Don’t take it just to take it but to get something out of it.”

Next year’s conference will take place in Boston, MA.

Kreher has advice for journalism students interested in participating even if they didn’t go this time around: “Start saving your pennies now because Boston is going to rock.”