Eleven Alliance High School Journalism students traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska to attend the annual National High School Press Association (NHSPA) Fall Convention, on Monday, October 17. The NHSPA Convention was held on the UNL campus, with four sessions throughout the day. Peyton Stoike, McKenna Romick, Autumn Hoff, Safyre Yearling, Sharia Williamson, Kathleen Kusmic, Tilie Vaughn, Oryanna Trout, Hayley Adams, Aubrie Lawrence, and Luxie West all attended various workshops throughout the day to improve their writing skills for their school newspaper, The Spud.

The twelve students from Alliance, along with many other students from North Platte and Scottsbluff, Nebraska were able to take a tour of the 10 11 News Station, on Sunday, October 16. The tour included getting a “run-down” of what happens before the live broadcast takes place. It also included being able to try to take the role of a Meteorologist, and using the green screen while on camera. We all watched the 10:00 pm live broadcast from many different places in the building. We were allowed to watch in the control room, the gallery above the studio, inside of the studio, and on a TV in the hallway.

“I enjoyed the live broadcast the most. It was cool to see behind the scenes during a live show. I thought it was a creative way to involve the students,” said Oryanna Trout, Staff Writer.

The next day started off with Keynote Speaker Erin Grace, an Omaha World-Herald columnist. The students then broke into the sessions that were chosen by the student, based on their interests. Each session was 30 minutes, with two sessions in the morning, an hour lunch break, and two more sessions in the afternoon. The workshops ranged anywhere from Feature Writing, Photography, Career Talk, and even a tour of Anderson Hall, the home to the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Editor-In-Chief, Peyton Stoike, along with Staff Writer, McKenna Romick, attended both the Career Talk: Journalism, and Career Talk: Broadcasting workshops.

“I enjoyed attending this conference for the fourth year in a row. Every year that I go, things get more interesting to me. Enjoying these conferences has helped me to realize that journalism is how I plan to spend my future. Attending these conferences is an amazing experience and every year gets a little bit better than the one before,” said Peyton Stoike, Editor-in-Chief.

The journalism class attends the NHSPA every year, and there was no exception as to why this year was not the most enjoyable. There were many things that we all learned that will be put into use for the class’s writings. Check all of the new skills learned on ahsthespud.com!