When the 30 staff members from Archer’s publications — Hestia’s Flame and The Oracle — marched through the airport, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, they discussed the workshops and tours they hoped to attend at the National High School Journalism Convention. The NHSJC, hosted by the Journalism Education Association, happens twice a year — one taking place in the fall and the other in the spring. This year’s fall conference was from Thursday, Nov. 13, to Saturday, Nov. 15. Held in the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, the convention took place in Nashville, Tennessee.
Journalism students from around the world gathered to attend in journalism-centered workshops and tours. Workshops were hosted by school advisors, professional journalists and students. Co-groups editor for Hestia’s Flame Sophie Shafipour (’27) said she plans to implement the new skills she learned from the workshops she attended, especially those hosted by people from around the globe.
“Every country and state has a different way of doing journalism, and so [the convention] brings all these ideas together and makes you go into more nuance and see different perspectives,” Shafipour said, “so then you’re not so fixated on what you’ve learned and have a more open mindset.”
Maria Polizzi, a senior at Rolla High School in Rolla, Missouri, is the editor-in-chief of her school’s yearbook, the Growler. She said her confidence and journalistic skills have grown since she attended her first NHSJC when she was a new staff member.
“To come back and do this one more time as a senior, and to really experience this one last time with the people I’m closest with is really special to me,” Polizzi said. “Also, [I want] to make sure that I’m prepared to get my younger staffers through this year and help with recruitment for next year.”
Sophomore at duPoint Manual High School, Sophia Tzanetos, is from Louisville, Kentucky, and she is a reporter for her school’s online newspaper, the Manual Redeye. Tzantos said she was inspired by the Thursday keynote address. There, Pulitzer Prize winners Toluse Olorunnipa, Jessica Gallagher and Alissa Zhu — all from different backrounds — spoke to the attendees.
“It [was] really nice to hear from the keynote speakers last night who were once in our position. They were once student journalists like us,” Tzantos said. “It’s really nice to hear professionals that get to give us the insight on what it’s like to actually be in that field [in order to] to know if that’s a career we want to pursue.”
Michelle Neely is the yearbook advisor for the Latin school of Chicago, located in Chicago, Illinois. Neely said while she enjoys seeing her students be excited to learn and explore, she also hopes they reach out to students from different parts of the world to learn about their unique ways of practicing journalism.
“We’ve come here as a group of 17, we stay as a group of 17. Are they actually mingling with other folks from other places?” Neely said. “I’m curious … because that’s what this should be, where we really are talking to other people. But I think it’s so easy to go back to the people we know.”
Polizzi said that when coming together, it is important to know that everyone is capable of telling a fresh, new story. Even in states neighboring Missouri, such as Arkansas, she said there are many differences between the people and journalists there.
“It’s important to know that the thread that connects us all is being journalists,” Polizzi said, “but that doesn’t pigeonhole us into one narrative.”
