On Thursday, Oct. 27, the staff of the Spartan Shield made the journey to University of Iowa to attend a fall conference hosted by the Iowa High School Press Association.
Journalism students from all across Iowa came together in the University of Iowa Memorial Union to listen to speakers, take part in competitions, and go to different seminars to learn how to provide the best news for readers.
The first speaker of the morning was Adrian Brambilia, a Youtuber, business owner, dancer, and marketer. Brambilia spoke about how he took a risk with trying to become a professional dancer, but with self-confidence and support from his friends and family, he was able to achieve his goal and tour with T-Pain as a backup dancer. He told the audience that if you have self-confidence, you too can achieve your biggest goals.
After Brambilia, the keynote speaker took the stage. This year it was Sarah Nichols, who was awarded National Yearbook Adviser of the Year. Nichols talked about journalism students being the next wave of newsroom leaders. It is important as journalists to always be ahead of the game, whether that means breaking a story first or finding a new way to connect with your readers. It also means writing the stories that some people don’t want written.
After Nichols was done speaking, students were able to go to a variety of different seminars. At these seminars, students learned how to perfect what they do as journalists. There were seminars on photography, social media, website design, and much more.
There were also two competitions taking place that anyone could be a part of. One of them was a photography contest. While the guest speakers were presenting, students in the photography contest were tasked with capturing the presentation and submitting three of their best photos. Taking part in the competition from Pleasant Valley were seniors Cassie Berta, Jarrin Flores, Dylan Hartford, and Emily Nutt. Unfortunately, the seniors’ photos were not chosen as winners.
Berta says, “It was cool being able to get really close to the speaker and use my limited skills in photography for a relaxed contest in which I could have fun with other students.”
The other competition was on-the-spot news writing. After Nichols was done speaking, journalists had 40 minutes to write a full article about the presentation. Abi Paravasthuramesh, senior, earned second place; and Sam Lundry, senior, was the overall winner. This is the second year a Pleasant Valley student has won the competition. The previous year’s winner was 2016 graduate Sara Herzberg.
Lundry believes, “Attending the IHSPA’s conference was a valuable experience. The Spartan Shield staff had the opportunity to learn from many great innovators in student journalism.”
The staff for the Spartan Shield took a lot away from this conference and has many great ideas for both the website and the newspaper. Make sure to keep up with us on our Snapchat, SpartanShield; Twitter, @PVPublications; and our Facebook page, Spartan Shield, for news around the school and much more.
