High school journalism students attended the Florida Scholastic Press Association annual convention in Tampa on April 17-19. Students attended workshops on broadcasting, yearbook, newspaper, literary magazine and online and participated in contests. Two students shared lessons learned during their convention experience.
Daniel Espinosa, 11th grader at Southwest Miami Senior High School and section editor of the Aquila yearbook staff, shared his eye-opening experience. Espinosa, who will be editor-in-chief next year, wrote:
The FSPA convention has been VERY helpful for me because of the experience that I had here. The guest speakers really got my mind and eyes open to new ideas, concepts, andtechniques, and gave me knowledge thatI know I will use not only in journalism but in everyday life. A great part of this convention were the on-the-spot contests. I got to see people from many schools do what I love to do. What amazed me the most was how other students reacted to the contests. I was involved in the yearbook contest and when I looked around, everyone was super nervous. Even students that had been doing this exact same contest for years were going crazy. It made me take a step back and tell myself to relax, that I know what I was doing, and that no matter what I knowI did my best. In the endI was the one calming down everyone in my group. … I guess it doesn’t matter how much experience you have, it’s how you react to the situation at hand that counts.
Madeline Garrett, 10th grader at Southwest Miami Senior High School and member of her school’s broadcast team, WPHS, wrote:
As I sat in the Hyatt’s hallway, waiting to be let into another chilled conference room, I noticed one of my advisers pacing nervously back and forth in the room across the hall. Is everyone okay? Do we have to leave FSPA? What happened? I found myself walking over to her, and before I could stop myself, “Are you okay?” popped out of my mouth.
It turns out that Florida is making many budget cuts this year. Our broadcast team might be cut. My high school is a sports-oriented school, not journalism. But isn’t journalism what keeps the world spinning? Without it, who would know when the next game was, or even who won it? How would we know about the new movies and their show times? Who would tell us that a hurricane was coming?
The world depends on journalism in all forms. Whether it’s your local newspaper, or an international web page, the stories need to be heard. Journalism will carry on forever. It has to. Just because we are still in high school, doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything important to say. Our voices deserve to be heard.
