The Journalism Education Association (JEA), an organization for teachers and advisers of journalistic endeavors, holds the National High School Journalism Convention semi-annually. During the convention, attendees experience educational learning sessions from keynotes and delve into the world of journalism by professionals. This year, the convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By convenience of the location for the 2024 event, eight students from the high school’s journalism program, Print Media Workshop, were given the opportunity to attend.
The students who went on the field trip were selected among the class by seniority. The group came down to Christopher Denkovich (12), Lainey Tuszynski (12), Brodie Falk (12), Brooke Stragand (12), Calla Reynolds (11), Caden Beringer (11), Colton Blank (11) and Hannah Shaffer (11). These students were transported to Philadelphia via school van escorted by high school Print Media advisor, Mr. Aaron Fitzpatrick, and middle school journalism advisor, Ms. Sara Miller.
The students paid a total of $450 for the trip. To help lower the cost, they fundraised twice by selling pretzels from “The Pretzel Factory.” Additionally, Fitzpatrick was able to utilize money from the Freedom High School Press account, which also helped with minimizing prices.
The group departed the high school on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 2:30 p.m. and returned home on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 10:30 p.m. While there, they attended numerous learning sessions of varying subjects and interactivity, bringing their gained knowledge back home with them. Some of these included “Getting photographers to understand the assignment,” “Yearbook and newspaper coverage A to Z” and “Designing dynamic spreads.” During these sessions, the students talked to professionals about their work and discussed the efforts put into their methods of journalism, such as newspaper, yearbook and even broadcast techniques. Each session focused deeply into one attribute of journalism for students to benefit from and apply to their own school programs.
“As someone who is involved in the newspaper, yearbook and broadcast, I definitely had a lot of options in sessions,” Stragand said. “I was able to obtain information for both my broadcast and print class that I can take back into the classroom.”
On Nov. 7, the group attended dinner and an open trade show before sitting in on the opening ceremony and keynote address by Matthew Henderson, a documentary producer.
On Friday, Nov. 8, the team attended more sessions and then in the afternoon went to a New Voices meeting, where they discussed student press freedom advocacy. Later, at 8:00 p.m., they participated in team trivia about journalism, college athletics and pop culture. Finally, they left the convention on Nov. 9 at 3:30 p.m. and returned home later that night around 10:30 pm.
“We got to see so many amazing publications around [the world] but even more, we got to see so many good tips on how to make our publication better,” Blank said.
Outside of the JEA convention itself, the students also enjoyed recreational activities, such as a personal tour of the city guided by Cyndi Hyatt, the JEA State Director for Pennsylvania and a board member of the Pennsylvania School Press Association. They also visited historical landmarks such as the Liberty Bell and the “Rocky Steps” statue.
“From the tour around Philadelphia to the journalism sessions, I enjoyed every moment of it,” Beringer said. “The team bonded more than ever and I feel significantly closer with all of the staff.”