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Late at night after getting off the train we stepped out into the middle of the city. As we walked down the streets red and blue lights danced across the face of buildings as police were running around, searching the bushes and buildings speeding down the street on motorcycles, on bikes, in cars, on foot, and horseback.
“We encountered so many cops, more cops than I’ve ever seen in one place,” Clawson said. “I started counting and I think there were a little over 100.”
Students Madison Shelley, Jazmin Solis, Kipplyn Holbrook, Kortney Mitchell, Miley Clawson, Ellie Finlinson and MaKayla Hansen experienced this with advisor Ben Cox and his wife, Jenny Cox, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as we were there for the national journalism conference.
We attended the JEA/NSPA (Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association) conference. We were able to learn and take things back to NS to better the class. Holbrook learned more about the website and what we can do to make it better for everyone and other tips and tricks.
“I learned a lot of how to be more considerate to people who might have disabilities like some people who might not be able to move a mouse or it might be hard for them to read,” Holbrook said. “They taught us a lot about how to reconsider it towards them.”
For Clawson, she learned about podcasting, how we can start to create a podcast and how we can start using that podcast. She also learned how to be an ex-ample for the others in the class.
“I learned a lot about how to be a good leader,” Clawson said. “They talked about how you have to set a good example, how you can’t expect things from your peers if you are not willing to do it yourself.”
There were a lot of things we learned. One class taught about how to be a better interviewer and what type of questions we should ask, how we should ask them, what an interview should look like, and then how to write a story using the information.
There was a class teaching how to write stories and the steps to creating a better story starting with brainstorming, finding sources, and ways to tell the story. Then the design, localizing the topic, and looking to the future, all different ways and steps on how to improve and write your story.
Some classes taught about photo types. Telling us how we can describe photos and getting ideas to get the photo for the story. Like mid range shots, wide shots, and detailed shots. In another class we learned about designs for our newspaper to make it more interesting and give color to the paper.
Even though we went to Philadelphia to attend the conference, we also got the opportunity to tour around the area. One morning we got to tour the city on a Hop On Hop Off double decker bus. The tour bus stopped at a variety of different places including, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Center, the City Hall, Betty Ross’s house, Love Park, The Rocky Steps, the Mint, and other important and historical places.
“Cities have so much history,” Mitchell said, “especially a city like Philadelphia where it was crucial in the beginning of the country. Seeing how history survived in the city was just mind-boggling to me and I loved learning about the history of the city.”
Other than the city we also got to explore Valley Forge and Washington’s headquarters, Hershey’s Chocolate Factory, Harper’s Ferry, and Gettysburg, and we also stopped in a little Amish town.
“It was this super cute town with all these [old traditions],” Clawson said. “We saw this guy plowing with a team of horses, and it was really cool.”
One night after a long day we got to the hotel and we were all tired and hungry. We ordered burritos for dinner that ended up in Boston. After reordering we finally got to eat at 10 p.m., and even then we didn’t get what we had originally ordered.
In our journey we had a total of four flights. Our first two were three-hour flights with a layover in Dallas where we arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our next two flights were a five hour flight and one hour flight with a 27 minute layover in Arizona.
For Holbrook, she had many stories about her flights and her experiences on the planes. Her first flight was her worst experience. The people behind her wouldn’t let her open her window, reaching between the seat and the wall to close it whenever she opened it. But the second flight was better where she got to watch movies on the plane’s tv screens.
“It was my only window opportunity out of all four flights and I didn’t even get a window,” Holbrook said.
After the long journey to Philadelphia, we got back to the school around 9:45 p.m. The journey was long but fun and students were saying it was worth it.
“It was a struggle at first to save the money, but I feel like the outcomes that I got from it are far better than the loss I made, like money,” Holbrook said. “And it can always come back, but like that time I had to learn to improve our website and improve the paper and become more of the class and enjoy each other’s company. It was worth it overall.”
