On Friday, Sept. 16, 12 members of the yearbook and newspaper staffs attended the Illinois Journalism Education Association’s fall conference, held at the University of Illinois.
The keynote speaker for the event was Mitch Eden, the 2015 Dow Jones News Fund’s National Journalism Teacher of the Year. Eden advises the award-winning Kirkwood Call, at Kirkwood High School in Missouri. At the conference, he spoke on “Empowering Your Students,” and what it takes to build a successful media program.
“I really enjoyed the keynote speaker,” said Courtney Thomas, editor of the HHS’s Voice newspaper. “We’re going to try to use many of his ideas in class throughout this year.”
The conference offered classes throughout the day on subjects such as feature writing, sports writing, generating story ideas, reporting, staff management, online journalism, improving the yearbook, and social media.
“I enjoyed being able to see other yearbooks,” said Bri Governale, editor-in-chief of the Chieftain Yearbook, “and getting ideas to make our school’s book the best it can possibly be.”
Newspaper adviser Dennis Brown and yearbook adviser Lauren Teeter also attended the conference.
“I am glad to have had the opportunity for our publication staffs to attend the conference along side peers from other schools,” Teeter said. “It’s always great to see them excited about sharing ideas with their fellow staffers.”
“It’s always good to get out and let the students hear presentations from advisers, college professors, and professionals,” said Brown. “Conferences like this help make the program better and better.”
