In the month of November, Student Publications takes their annual trip to a US city with the Journalism Education Association (JEA). This year’s trip took Student Publications to Nashville, Tennessee.
“I went to Nashville, home of the Tennessee Titans: the worst team in the NFL,” Kevin Jaco, Arts & Comm. junior, said.
The trip began with a car ride that lasted over 14 hours. Teachers held students’ phones for most of the drive to encourage conversation.
“It was really nice to bond with all the people. We didn’t have our phones for most of the drive so we played lots of games,” Isaac Owens, Trade junior, said.
Once they arrived in Nashville, students began attending the journalism conference.
“We would arrive at the conference in time for the 8:00 sessions, and stay there till 2;00. After that we would go to lunch, and then go sightseeing out in Nashville,” Brian Nelson, Publications Advisor, said.
Students go to this conference as juniors so they can come back to the class with new ideas. Sessions covered different aspects of journalism that the students might wish to become more skilled in.
“We had five to six sessions a day all about things like editing, to photography, to how to be a good editor in chief, to basically anything you need to know about journalism,” Jaco said.
Nelson attends the conference each year as an advisor and chaperone, to continue to learn on the job.
“As an advisor, the main thing is I have to make sure that everyone has access to the schedules. I then went around to the different companies there to look at their quotes on yearbooks, I attended special advisor sessions, and signed up to critique another yearbook,” Nelson said.
Student Publications brought past editions of the yearbook and Sugar Beet to receive feedback from an assigned expert.
“The yearbook critique covered mostly the photos and not really the writing, but it was nice to get it critiqued nonetheless,” Jaco said.
Jaco sat in on the yearbook critique, while Owens attended the Sugar Beet critique.
“The critique went very well. The person talked a lot about leadership in the classroom, formatting to make the Sugar Beet look better, and story ideas that can make it easier to read,” Owens said.
Nelson was able to attend both critiquing sessions.
“The newspaper critique was very productive. The yearbook critique turned more into a photo critique, but we only had around 25 minutes so it went fast,” Nelson said.
The students would attend their sessions throughout the morning, and swap stories of what they learned.
“The most memorable section was called ‘all about the eyes’ and it was about using lighting and all the settings on a camera to take the best photos of someone,” Jaco said.
Nelson notes that there are specific reasons he continues to take students to JEA each year.
“JEA is good professional development for students. It gives them something to put on a resume, it’s good exposure to travel, and it’s just a great conference,” Nelson said.
After the conference, the students traveled to do sightseeing and ruin throughout the city
“We went to the park, a night ghost tour, the Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Zoolights,” Nelson said.
Owens recalled his favorite memory of the places he went.
“We went to the music hall of fame. There was a group of me and five others who started our own band with the instruments that we were allowed to play. We sang and all had fun there,” Owens said.
Jaco also had a favorite memory from the trip.
“I’m going to always remember the beautiful scenery, I took so many photos. Walking downtown and seeing all the signs made it really cool to sort of experience the night life there,” Jaco said.
Nelson looks forward to the next JEA conference.
“I plan on taking students next year again, this time in Orlando, Florida,” Nelson said.
JEA provides many perks for the Student Publications members, who noted they were excited to implement all they learned.
“The biggest takeaway is always what the students pick up,” Nelson said, “it’s always nice to hear them talking about the sessions they attended”
