On Friday, March 4, a bus containing the members of the Newsstreak and SBC staffs pulled out of the HHS parking lot at 4:30 in the morning. Seven hours later, they were in Columbia, South Carolina, gearing up for the Southern Interscholastic Press Association Convention.

The Southern Interscholastic Press Association (or SIPA for short) is a non-profit organization dedicated “to encouraging a high degree of professionalism in scholastic journalism and mass communications in the Southeast.” Every March, schools from 15 states convene at the University of South Carolina to attend various journalistic sessions and compete against others schools publications. The convention features seminars and awards for broadcast, yearbook, newspaper, and online journalism.

The seminars focus on everything from editing a story to efficiently running a staff; from how to write a compelling feature story to how to take a good picture. Newsstreak adviser Valerie Kibler taught a four-hour session on how to build an effective website for a schools publication, and she and broadcast adviser Seth Stratford taught a session on Google Docs, entitled “Go Ga Ga for Google Docs.”

“My favorite seminar was about pursuing a journalism degree. The instructor,

Stephanie Gallman, had a very interesting story to tell about her career in journalism, and now she works for CNN,” junior William Imeson said. This was Imeson’s first SIPA convention.

18 members of the Newsstreak and SBC staffs attended the conference, and while education was a major aspect of it, having a good time was equally important.

“My favorite part of SIPA was integrating the Newsstreak and broadcasting classes, because we don’t get to hang out that much. It’s interesting to see what they’re passionate about,” junior Vanessa Ehrenpreis said. Ehrenpreis is the managing editor for the print edition of the Newsstreak.

Students had several hours a day to do whatever they wanted around downtown Columbia. Popular attractions were the capitol building, just several blocks down from the hotel, and the restaurant district. While there were many options to choose from, the Mellow Mushroom was the most popular eatery. The convention also included a dance, which took place on Saturday night from 8:30 to 11 p.m.

This year, the Newsstreak enjoyed an especially strong showing at SIPA.

“We’ve been going since 2004, and each year we’ve would only have one or two people win, but recently we’ve gotten better,” Kibler said. Kibler has been the adviser of the Newsstreak for 13 years, and began bringing the Newsstreak staff to SIPA nine years ago.

“I use [SIPA] as a training workshop for younger staff members, and more of a competition for the older staff members,” Kibler said.

Various members of the Newsstreak staff won awards this year in everything from photography to feature writing. Overall, the Newsstreak performed better than any previous year, taking home All-Southern ratings for the both the print and online editions, best in-state publication, and the Scroggins Award, given to the best publication at the convention.

“This year we did a lot better than previous years,” Kibler said. “We entered the same amount of competitions, but overall the caliber and quality of the staff has gone up, with multiple students performing well as opposed to just a few.”

Overall, the staff of the Newsstreak felt very good about their experience in Columbia.

“I think it was a successful competition and a really influential experience that helped the staff bond as friends and as people working together,” editor-in-chief Maria Rose said.

And you can bet the Newsstreak will be back again.

“I’m already looking forward to next year,” Ehrenpreis said.