Traveling at a young age can be a beneficial experience to explore new areas of the world and gain life lessons.
However, traveling over the weekend with a purpose, like a journalism convention in Kansas City, Missouri, can also incorporate education into the experience.
Several students from the Lakeland High School journalism and broadcasting classes traveled from April 4-6 for the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.
Throughout the weekend, students were engaged in 45-minute lectures discussing topics ranging from broadcasting fundamentals and artificial intelligence resources to tips and tricks on how to write like Taylor Swift.
The weekend also allowed students to learn from several successful journalists and photographers.
The opening ceremony included a keynote speaker, Jim Richardson, a former National Geographic photojournalist.
Richardson shared numerous photos and experiences he had with National Geographic magazine. Students could ask him questions about his time with the magazine and see firsthand the different cultures Richardson captured in photographs.
Another speaker over the weekend was Jeff Passan, the senior MLB insider at ESPN. Passan shared his success with the convention goers and how he managed to do so well in his career. He shared his college experience and the path he took to reach this point in his career.
Jordan Bucaroff, the executive producer of Hello Hawks, learned the importance of algorithms
and schedules for assignments to get done. He also learned about social media and the algorithm behind it all.
“I learned there are a lot more journalists out there than broadcasters, so that means I am outnumbered, which pushes me to be better and be inspired,” Bucaroff said.
He also believes the trip was beneficial for friendships, and he was able to grow his relationships with classmates and create new friendships.
Aly Caywood, a first-time attendee grant winner, participated in a digital photography workshop, where she learned numerous lightning techniques, editing skills, and future techniques for creating more artistic photographs.
“With the extra worship, we got more individual worktime with the instructors, so they were able to give more detail, especially in areas you are struggling in,” Caywood said. “So I was able to learn more, and it was more tailored to the students.”
Students could build their journalistic skills through the convention and incorporate them into their classes. Students from Hello Hawks, the broadcasting class at LHS, learned several media and filming skills while in Kansas City.
Lincoln Wood, a senior at LHS who plans to major in broadcasting, attended the convention and picked up several valuable skills to use in the future.
“In a world of broadcasting and entertainment, you need to craft sentences like they are gifted from the heavens,” Wood said. “At this broadcast journalism convention, they gave me the opportunity to properly learn how to communicate with the audience to give them the proper information that they need and to keep them intrigued with the words of wisdom I give them.”
With the 2023-2024 school year wrapping up in the next two months, many juniors in the journalism and broadcasting class used this experience to learn leadership skills for the next school year.
Bailey Elliott, the news editor for the Lakeland Hawkeye, attended several leadership classes, including the Ten Habits of a Highly Influential Editor, from this lecture. Elliott found new organizational and communication strategies to put in place next year.
“I learned a lot of new skills and lessons I can take into account for next year,” Elliott said. “With so many editors leaving next year, it will be helpful to take those skills and apply them next year when we have new editors and new writers.”
Besides the extensive amount of information absorbed throughout the weekend, students could also create memories and experience something new.
Traveling over 1,500 miles, LHS students could interact and meet student journalists from all over the country.
Caywood, Elliott and I spent 45 minutes in a media swap with other students comparing websites, giving and receiving feedback from the different schools, and comparing the environment in the journalism programs.
LHS media advisers Allison Knoll and Michael Dunn also attended the trip and learned new skills to bring back to the classroom.
“The big thing I took away is how to organize my class a little more efficiently,” Dunn said. “There aren’t a lot of people in this area who teach this class, and I had to build it from the ground up, and so I am still learning.”
He believes the experience was “invaluable” because he was able to discuss and bounce ideas off of other journalism teachers to learn different teaching techniques.
Personally, I was able to learn several skills to take with me to college in the fall.
After attending the Law of the Student Press workshop, I better understood copyright laws, defamation of character and libel, the Tinker Law, the Hazelwood Law, and overall censorship rules.
Taught by Mike Hiestand, a senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, I was introduced to fair use, which protects the use of other work to a limited extent in news, and how it can be applied to journalism.
Ensuring a journalist’s writing stays true to the facts and does good reporting is crucial to solid journalism. The workshop I was able to attend gave me a better understanding of the consequences and preventions for legal issues.
Receiving the first-time attendee grant to Kansas City opened up the experience for me, and because of it, I am a better journalist today.
*Photos courtesy of Aly Caywood.
