Eleven students across all grades traveled to the Pacific Northwest to Seattle for the JEA/NSPA Spring National Journalism Convention from April 23-27.
These students were: Lilly Brown (12), Caitlin McDonnell (12), Amber Sethaler (12), Braden Altrup (12), Ella Quinney (11), Will Nolan (11), Lexi Hufty (10), Ellie Simon (10), Jackson Adams (10), Kate Stroud (10), and Kelsey Altrup (9).
During the trip, the students went to touristic spots such as Pike Place Market, Bainbridge Island, and The Space Needle. They even got to ride a ferry across the bay.
“The ferry was really cool, I’ve never been on a ferry like that and the view of the city was beautiful to see,” McDonnell said.
During this convention, attendees got to go to various sessions, workshops, critiques and competitions.
Three of the students, Brown, McDonnell, and Altrup, taught their own sessions to various people across the country.
McDonnell taught a session about photography and a session about being an editor. Brown taught a session about class culture and a session about social media. Altrup taught a session about video editing. And together Altrup and Brown taught a session about covering Friday Night Lights.
“Presenting really does give you a sense of professionalism, it teaches you to be comfortable in being in front of a room of people. Having the ability to be able to speak in front of people and learn to control a room is a school everyone should have,” Altrup said. “Giving presentations at conferences is a way to learn how to do that.”
Besides learning, the program also received various different awards.
The program was selected as an Innovation Pacemaker Finalist. Although the program did not win, it was still an honor to be selected as a finalist.
“Even though the awards did not end the way I may have hoped, It is still such a great achievement to be selected as a pacemaker finalist,” Sethaler said.
You can read more about this award here.
Below are all the awards won during the conference.
JEA First Amendment Press Freedom Award recipients
Innovation Pacemaker Finalists
JEA NATIONAL MEDIA CONTESTS
Honorable mentions
Video package editing- Braden Altrup
First year photo- William Nolan
Portrait photo- Lilly Brown
Sports action photo- Caitlin McDonnell
Yearbook copy captions (academics)- Kelsey Altrup
News Writing- Amber Sethaler
Superior
Review Writing- Lexi Hufty
JEA NATIONAL QUIZ BOWL Finalists (Final 4)
Lilly Brown, Ella Quinney, Jackson Adams, Lexi Hufty
NSPA BEST OF SHOW CONTESTS
Editorial leadership- 1st place- Lilly Brown
Broadcast video- 5th place- Will Nolan, Kate Stroud, Parker Sethaler, Amber Sethaler
Design: Newsmagazine – 7th place – Meghan Lynch, Loukya Vaka
Reporting: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion- 5th place- Kristiauna Brown
Sports action photo- 9th place- Lilly Brown
Reporting: News story- 10th place- Emily Nguyen
