On October 17, 2021, the Annual and Journalism class went to the NHSPA Fall convention in Lincoln Nebraska. Students Makayla Goss, Tatum Bossell, Cynthia Wing, Morgan Moomey, Brooklyn Branstiter, Taylee Thompson, Jayda Backous, Abigail Louden, Charlotte Schmidt, and Kali Bridge from Alliance High School, all attended the conference. Schools all around Nebraska attended as well. The girls left Alliance for Lincoln Nebraska on October 17 at 10:00 a.m. The bus ride was 8 hours long. The alliance bus was driven by Brenda Schrum.
The conference taught students about different ways to improve their writing. There were many different classrooms to attend for different topics taught about writing. The hallways included tables set up with vendors offering items such as shirts, water bottles and pens. The leaders gave us websites to look more into Journalism.
In the morning before lunch, two classes could be chosen to learn about. Cynthia Wing, Makayla Goss, and I went to “Sports Writing and Storytelling” during the first session (10:15-10:45 a.m). Then, we attended “Feature Writing and Creative Storytelling.” In this session, feature writing was led by veteran reporter Margaret Reist. The session taught how to flex creative writing muscles. After lunch (11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.), us girls went to the Heritage room to learn about the basics of Photoshop. “The Basics of Photoshop” was led by certified instructor Keith McCoy. McCoy talked about the outlines of Photoshop techniques. This session was very helpful to those who did not know how to use photoshop as well as others who were taught before. For the last session, we proceeded to walk to the Unity room. In the Unity room, John Schreier of the Lincoln Journal Star, led “Taking a Stand”. He talked about making stories and helped get ideas for writing persuasive editorials. Talking to the students on the bus who attended the conference, it seemed like they all enjoyed their time in Lincoln Nebraska. The SPUD is excited to attend the conference next year!