Nine journalism students went to Washington D.C from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 for the high school National Journalism Convention. They went in hopes of bettering the newspaper and yearbook for our school.
Junior Crosslin Silcott went to Chicago last year along with other journalist to learn more about journalism.

“Last year was my first year on staff, I had a lot of fun in Chicago,” Silcott said. “I learned a lot and I wanted to learn even more this year.”

Out of 2,126 students only 144 received the superior rating award, which is for the sports action photos. One of those 144 being Sophomore Kathleen Ortiz who won the award for three of her sports photos.

“The convention was really fun, I learned so much and I can’t wait to implement everything I learned here at Kingwood Park,” Ortiz said.

This year twice as many people went to Washington D.C compared to Chicago last year, the journalism students got to hear from writers from the New York Times, the Washington Post and other papers throughout the states.

“This year I knew what conferences I wanted to go to,” Silcott said. “Since last year I was new I didn’t really know what conferences to do but this year I knew what to focus on.”

Senior Sara Geiger wasn’t able to go to nationals last year so being her last year she wanted to go experience what it was like.

“At the convention you had all of these sessions, with different topics and teachers,” Geiger said. “I had one with photography and the teachers showed all of these photos that they had published over time”

Although the students were at the convention a lot they were able to go out and tour Washington D.C.

“It was such a great opportunity to be immersed in the journalism community and be able to learn a lot of cool things,” Geiger said.