On Thursday, the Iowa High School Press Association held their annual conference at the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City. This conference provides students with an opportunity to hear from experienced journalists and learn how to improve their publications.
Thirty-one publications and honors journalism students took the trip up to Iowa City. The conference was a new experience for Co-Editor-in-Chief of the online Spartan Shield, Sheridan Culp. “I went to the conference because I thought it would improve my writing skills and leadership abilities. I was excited to learn from people who are experts in the field of journalism.”
The conference began with an opening session led by keynote speaker, Brian Ross. Brian Ross is an investigative journalist who has done award-winning work with NBC, ABC, and now the Law & Crime Network. A graduate from the University of Iowa, his reporting has exposed government and corporate corruption around the world and brought justice to victims and the disenfranchised. He has more than seventy-five awards in the field and has written his own book.
Following the opening keynote, students could choose to attend one of the thirteen workshops. Each workshop concentrated on a different area of journalism, for instance: news, sports, video, or online.
During the first workshop, students had the choice to enter a writing contest. The contest is called the IHSPA On-The-Spot News Writing Contest, in which participants had 40 minutes to write a news article regarding the keynote speaker, Brian Ross. Pleasant Valley’s own Lily Williams placed first in this contest. “ ”
In the first half of the day, students sat in on three workshops, each forty minutes long. Students had the freedom to attend any workshops they wanted, so the sessions allowed them to expand their knowledge on various platforms. The students were then released for a lunch break in downtown Iowa City. Following the brief break, students returned for one final workshop and a closing session.
This closing session consisted of the writing contest award, annual awards for the yearbook, paper publications, and online publications. Returning publications student Haley Moore stated, “I think the awards ceremony went well, especially when you compare the resources and numbers that the winning schools have compared to ours. This past year was a very successful year for our publications, and I can’t wait to see what this year brings.” This ceremony awards students for outstanding artwork, writing, and images. Pleasant Valley placed in many categories for all of its publications last year.
