FRIDAY & SATURDAY SUMMARY

Catherine Caruso

 Friday and Saturday of the St. Louis Convention were very exciting days for our yearbook and Panther Press staffs. There were dozens of sessions to choose from each hour from nine to four.

The convention center was huge, and each class filled up very fast. I attended sessions on photography, writing, interviewing, and editing. Each session held more than one hundred kids, and was taught by someone who was experienced in the class they were teaching. The sessions were amazing, and I have a notebook full of new ideas to improve my work.

One very educational class I attended was “The Power of Light,” in which we learned about how to embrace the light given and study what type of light it is in order to get the best photograph. A class I took on “The Art of The Interview,” emphasized that an interview should feel like a conversation; and the purpose of an interview is to learn about someone’s story. Here is the link to slides from a workshop I attended on how to organize page layouts.

On Friday we all took part in a contest that featured a certain aspect of journalism.

On Saturday we had our yearbook critiqued by an expert, and we learned how to improve our yearbook for this year’s coverage.

Expert journalism educator Mr. Jim McCrossen reviewed our 2022 yearbook.

Not only was the convention an amazing opportunity to learn about journalism; but the trip allowed me to get to know my classmates on the yearbook and Panther Press.

We all traveled to the Gateway Arch on the last day, as it was snowing, where we went up to the top of the arch in a tram car that looked like it was from space. We had a view of St. Louis 630 ft into the air, which highlighted the Cardinals Stadium, and the Mississippi River, which divides Missouri and Illinois. Up in the arch, our tour guide began to sing and we had a quick dance break before heading back on the ground.

We then walked to The Old Spaghetti Factory where we prefaced the meal with milkshakes and news of one of our classmate’s placing in one of the contests.

Throughout the trip, we asked other journalism students if they knew what a Wawa was, signed a traffic cone, and tasted RC Cola for the first time.

On Sunday we woke up at 2:30 A.M. to catch a plane back to Philadelphia.

The trip was a well worth investment of time for our publications; and I will continue to cherish the memories and many photos taken throughout the journey.