Select members of the HHS Newsstreak staff attended a conference presented by the Virginia High School League and Jostens on Oct. 7. Held at the convention center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the one day event consisted of five periods of various lectures as well as an awards banquet.

 The staff, accompanied by yearbook, literary magazine, and broadcasting representatives, left the school that morning at six. Following what was approximately a two and a half hour car ride, the group comfortably arrived in time to attend the first series of lectures. Choosing from ten different options per time slot, students picked a lecture that aligned with their particular interest and affiliation. There were lectures for literary magazine, journalism, yearbook, and broadcasting, as well as some cross-disciplinary lectures. Workshops focused on integration of social media, specific aspects of journalism, photography fundamentals, and leadership building.

The awards banquet consisted of a two-course meal, salad and lasagna, as well as a ceremony happening in the backdrop. Several HHS students were recognized for their work. Afterwards, a short break period occurred where editors-in-chief Luke Gibson, Sydney Little, Mia Karr, Celia Ehrenpreis, as well as advisor Valerie Kibler presented independent mini-lectures on varying subjects.

“[The awards show] was a good way to give out awards and feed us, the lasagna was a bit salty, but overall the food was good,” Gibson said

“It was fun,” Ehrenpreis said, “I learned a lot. It was nice for us to be recognized as trophy class.” Gibson shared her enthusiasm.

“The fact we won the trophy class in both online and print for last year makes me confident for this year.” His opinion of the overall trip was slightly less positive. “While the trip was insightful, I felt like we could’ve gotten more out of it. Most of the seminars felt like they were common sense.” Gibson said. Karr shared this sentiment.

“Some speakers weren’t the best but some had interesting things to say. One of the leaders didn’t really say much at all,” Karr said.