On Tuesday, April 2, ten students from the Print Media Workshop class traveled to Pennsylvania State University to compete in the Pennsylvania Student Press Association (PSPA) state competition. PSPA is an annual competition where students from all around the state come to compete in numerous journalism categories. Some of these categories include yearbook, newspaper, photography, broadcast and a numerous other subcategories.

Earlier in the year, on Oct. 27, students from the class traveled to Slippery Rock University to compete in a regional competition. This allowed students to have the opportunity to proceed to the state competitions. Eight students from the Print Media class carried on and one student from the Broadcast Media class carried on. Senior Jenna Haskey qualified for yearbook caption writing, senior Logan Larrick qualified for yearbook copywriting, senior Madison Meyer qualified for yearbook sports writing, senior Skylar Scobbo qualified for yearbook spread design, senior Aiden Pournaras qualified for newspaper sports story, junior Brodie Falk qualified for newspaper news writing, junior Lainey Tuszynski qualified for yearbook photography, junior Thomas Ward qualified for broadcast writing and sophomore Colton Blank qualified for podcasting.

“It was a fun and different experience because I’ve never done anything like that before. It was fun for all of us to get a chance to compete,” senior Maddy Meyer said.

For the competing students who got to travel there, they were assigned a room while they were completing their entry with other students. Contestants had one hour to complete their work before they needed to submit their final product. For students who were competing in the categories photography, broadcast video, blog submission and podcast, they had until April 16 to submit their final products. Students who were competing in these categories were required to gather information while they were at Pennsylvania State University. This includes things such as interviews and photographs. In the two weeks they had to submit their entry, these students would have time to put together or edit their entries.

When students had free time while they were not competing, they had the opportunity to listen to different speakers there. This gave students the opportunity to listen in and learn tactics about how to become a better journalist.

“Penn State was a wonderful experience and I am tremendously grateful I had the opportunity to go again. This year, I got to work even closer with the New Voices team to spread the movement to student journalists. Although I did not compete myself, I had so much fun spending the day advocating for student journalist rights,” sophomore Calla Reynolds said.

While the students were there, they were able to experience much more than just the competition. When they were there, they were surrounded by an atmosphere where it allowed them to learn more about what journalism is.