Convention sessions
This list of convention sessions may change prior to Nov. 1 when the online convention platform opens.
Leadership & Team Building
10 habits of a highly effective editor
Maybe you already have a leadership role or maybe you just want to prepare yourself for a future position as an editor. This session features tips and tricks about how to lead a staff effectively.
Julieanne McClain, MJE, Rutherford B Hayes High School adviser
General Interest, Advising
10 things you aren’t doing enough of
People involved with scholastic journalism are their own worst enemies sometimes, so here are 10 simple things you all can do to improve your programs — and how.
John Vitti, Watertown Public Schools teacher
Design
11 tips to better design
Busy typography and complicated graphics confuse your readers and send the wrong message. Understanding how to use the elements can help set the visual tone while freshening your yearbook’s look. Attention to details will turn your publication design from good to great and open up your creative thinking.
Nancy Hastings, MJE, retired journalism adviser
Leadership & Team Building
A leader’s purpose
Every leader happens for a reason. This isn’t just a stolen tagline from the book “A Dog’s Purpose.” Everyone can lead and every leader has a purpose. Learn how to be an effective servant leader and learn your part in helping others become leaders in their own right.
Jim McCrossen, Blue Valley Northwest High School adviser
General Interest, Writing
A reporter’s journey
This session encourages students to discover how rich and fertile their own lives are and what they can learn about storytelling from diving into it now. Award-winning sportswriter Melissa Isaacson shares how her high school experience as a basketball state champion in the wake of Title IX, shaped her career and a generation. Isaacson will focus on her journey from journalist to writing narrative non-fiction and what she has learned about storytelling.
Melissa Isaacson, Northwestern University professor
Marketing & Audience Engagement
Advertising: A career in constant evolution
The world of advertising has changed dramatically since the days of the hit TV series “Mad Men,” and it continues to evolve on an almost daily basis, requiring new skill sets. It’s now a world of driving engagement with consumers where content is at the heart of all communications programs.
Dave Wozniak, Penn State University assistant teaching professor
General Interest, Advising, Law & Ethics, Online
Advising student newspapers at private schools
This session will cover how to tackle common challenges and opportunities for advising student newspapers at private and independent schools including how student speech rights differ between public and private schools. Private School Journalism Association Director David Cutler will emphasize school mission and vision alignment with supporting student voice.
David Cutler, Private School Journalism Association director and Brimmer and May School adviser
Editing, Writing
AP style ++
Learn the basics of 2021 updated Associated Press style plus some of the best practices for scholastic journalism including naming staff and students with graduation years/grades. Plus, this speaker will break down some of the most common style mistakes student journalists make.
Jen Bladen, MJE, Harvard-Westlake School adviser
Writing
Art and breaking the social contract
This session is not about censorship. It is about when creativity challenges societal norms. Learn about how to have a candid conversation with your staff about pieces that should be included in your literary magazine and some that should not.
Renee Quaife, Sparkman High School adviser
Multimedia Broadcast, Law & Ethics, Leadership & Team Building, Marketing & Audience Engagement, Online
B-Positive: Social media best practices
Quill and Scroll’s seventh founding principle is friendship, but in this fractured world social media seems to be the last place to create bonds to build community. Learn from this diverse panel about how you can use social media to create positive messaging for your student media and for your school, while at the same time practicing great journalism.
Jeff Browne, MJE, Quill and Scroll executive director with panelists:
Jonathan Rogers, MJE, Iowa City High School adviser;
Emma Diehl, J.W. Mitchell High School student;
Jill Johnson Class Intercom president; and
Kathleen Ortiz, Kingwood Park High School student
General Interest, Multimedia Broadcast, Career Advice, Newsgathering
Behind the camera: Reporting in Philadelphia
Students can get an inside look at the day-to-day of a Philadelphia general assignment reporter. This speaker will explain how Penn State set her on the path to land a job in one of the top markets in the country.
Kelly Rule, Fox 29 reporter
Multimedia Broadcast
Beyond the announcements
Take your broadcast show to the next level with deeper storytelling and web-based content. This session will explore video story types, project management strategies and other ideas to strengthen your broadcast program.
Abrianna May, CJE, Washington-Liberty High School adviser
General Interest
Beyond the scoreboard
Sports play a big role at most schools and in student media, but the storytelling is often flat and cliche. This session will share winning strategies for finding feature angles, improving photo coverage, expanding live coverage, experimenting with sports design and more.
Sarah Nichols, MJE, Whitney High School adviser
General Interest, Advising, Writing
Beyond transition-quote format
Alternative copy is thrown around all the time, but how should students “write” it? This session will review some great sources for alternative copy and go into detail about one particular writing approach that is still fresh.
Mitch Ziegler, CJE, retired journalism adviser
General Interest, Law & Ethics, Newsgathering
Court media coverage: Importance and challenges
Hear from a lawyer turned journalist and a judge about the importance of independent, informed coverage of the courts to the independence of the judiciary.
Idee Fox, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania president judge;
Cherri Gregg, WHYY news anchor, and
Deborah Gross, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts president and CEO
Photojournalism
Creating a photo story
A photo story can be a great test of a photographer’s skills — to capture a series of strong images rather than just one lucky frame. Let’s take a look at some picture packages and photo stories and talk about ideas for telling full stories through photographs.
Mark Murray, Association of Texas Photography Instructors executive director
Design
Creating compelling visuals for complex stories
Deeply reported, nuanced stories deserve front page designs that pull in readers and tell the story in a powerful way. But coming up with the right visuals can be hard. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how a professional designer creates illustrations, type treatments and graphics that convey complicated themes and grab a reader’s attention. You’ll see a ton of great examples and come away with concrete steps to spark innovative ideas.
Stephanie Hays, designer at The Seattle Times
Career Advice
Creativity passion: Which degree should you pursue?
If you’re a creative person — love to write, express yourself through imagery and words, love to lead projects and pitch new ideas, learn about the endless opportunities when you pursue a journalism or communications degree.
Natalie Hines, ILC Dover internal communications specialist
General Interest, Multimedia Broadcast, Career Advice, Photojournalism, Writing
Doing it all: Surviving and thriving as an multimedia journalist
Can you just be a reporter anymore? This session will explain what it takes to become a successful one-person-band multimedia journalist. Furlong shares how skills in storytelling, journalism and tech are essential to today’s media industry.
Tim Furlong, NBC reporter
General Interest, Advising, Law & Ethics, Newsgathering
Fact-checking school safety data
Freedom of information laws can help you unlock powerful data sets that tell revealing stories about your school, district and state: How many students are being suspended or expelled each year, and for what offenses? Is the air quality and drinking water safe? You’ll leave with a notepad full of data-driven story ideas.
Frank LoMonte, University of Florida professor
Leadership & Team Building
Take a stand against censorship
NCAC is launching a national initiative to recruit student volunteers to create a movement of high school clubs to educate and to advocate in support of youth free expression challenges. Students will learn advocacy and leadership skills to amplify challenges to youth free expression such as book banning, censorship, self-expression or student protests on a national scale. We encourage students to apply from geographically and demographically diverse communities around the country.
Christine Emeran, National Coalition Against Censorship program director
Online
Google tools for your classroom
This session will guide you through search, Google Earth, data scraping and chart-building tools with the Google News Initiative. Participants get handouts with tools, examples and exercises.
Mike Reilley, Society of Professional Journalists digital trainer
News Literacy
History of journalism in the U.S. using primary sources
Explore key moments in U.S. history as told by journalists in newspapers, broadcast segments and the internet using PBS NewsHour’s new interactive website, “Journalism in Action.” Explore 200-plus primary sources on topics including the Revolutionary War, muckrakers, suffrage, civil rights, Watergate and gender equality. Students take charge of their own learning using this app, creating their own news headlines, stories and analyzing news sources from hundreds of years ago.
Victoria Pasquantonio, education producer at PBS NewsHour
General Interest, Design, Editing
How to have X-ray vision
Have you ever looked at a newspaper story or yearbook spread and wondered, how did they do that?! This session will get to the internal structures of stories and designs to help you become a better staffer by learning how to deconstruct professional (and student) work for inspiration and motivation.
Sarah-Anne Lanman, CJE, Munster High School adviser
Editing, Writing
I have a lot of opinions
The opinion section should be the heart of every publication — whether it’s speaking to readers through staff editorial, perspectives, pro/con, column or letter to the editor, this section celebrates diverse viewpoints and stimulates discussion. But too often, opinion sections feature unoriginal topics and wishy washy calls to action … or worse, emotive pieces and personal pulpits. Let’s use this session to work your opinions into strong, persuasive editorials that call readers to action.
Kathryn Campbell, CJE, St. Paul Academy and Summit School adviser
Advising
I’m a new adviser! Now what?
Being a new adviser can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. Get tips and tricks to help you calm your concerns and make your year be fun for both you and your students. You don’t have to be a first-year adviser to take something away from this session.
Alicia Merrifield, CJE, The Village School adviser and
Michelle Corbett, Indian Trail High School and Academy adviser
General Interest
If I were on a high school newspaper staff today
Come hear some tips on how to improve yourself as a student journalist from someone who understands the small things that take us from good to great. This session is geared toward newspaper but is definitely applicable to any staffer, editor or adviser working on a school publication.
Sarah Kirksey, CJE, Ladue Horton Watkins High School adviser
General Interest
Improving publication photography
Readers want to see great photos in the publication but to do this requires not just strong photographs but also smart use of them on the page. The best work takes a village, or at least the entire staff, to ensure readers want to look at your publication.
Mark Murray, Association of Texas Photography Instructors executive director
General Interest, Design
Infographics: Visualizing stories and numbers
Traverse through the types of infographics, from maps to flowcharts to diagrams. Learn how to design more effective methods of visualizing data, focusing on specific characteristics that makes an infographic easy to read and understand, and the ways they fit both in print and on the web.
Grace Peng, Northview High School student
General Interest, Advising, Career Advice
Internship intel: Building your journalism career
Learn how to land an internship and hit the ground running when you do from former Wall Street Journal staffer Paul Glader. He now runs the NYC Semester in Journalism, which places students in internships and directs the Dow Jones News Fund business reporting program. He will share tips on getting in the door and mistakes to avoid once you’re there.
Paul Glader, The King’s College adviser
General Interest, Marketing & Audience Engagement
Let’s get social
Learn tips and tricks to use your publication’s social media accounts to help maximize coverage, readership, participation and hype. Don’t have social media yet — don’t worry! At the end of this session you’ll be ready to create accounts.
Sarah Lerner, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School adviser
Editing, Newsgathering, Writing
Long story short
Mean editors want to cut your stories in half. In this session, we’ll learn how to tell a great, unique, tasty feature story in 300 words.
Christopher Heady, University of Kansas graduate student
General Interest, Editing
Making editing exciting
Editing is super important, but most of us think it is tedious. We’ll walk through the editing process and talk about ways to get your whole staff engaged in editing for your publication.
Kathy Habiger, MJE, Mill Valley High School adviser and
Amy Morgan, MJE, Shawnee Mission West High School adviser
Marketing & Audience Engagement
Marketing and branding your program
Advisers throughout the nation struggle to get students to enroll in their journalism programs. Learn how one adviser went from 20 staffers to over 95 in three years through various marketing, branding and recruiting strategies.
Dennis Brown, CJE, Huntley High School adviser
Marketing & Audience Engagement
Marketing your publication
In this session, you will learn how to maximize your yearbook, business ad and senior dedication sales. You will also learn how to promote your publication around campus.
Sarah Lerner, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School adviser
News Literacy
Misinformation. Disinformation. Reading laterally.
This session explains strategies for learning lateral reading to determine source and content validity.
Lydia Timmins, University of Delaware professor
General Interest, Newsgathering
More than both sides: Redefining objectivity
Objectivity has been the gold standard in journalism. But whose objectivity? As journalists debate their role — especially when it comes to race — the traditional definition of “objective” must evolve beyond detached stenography and performative balance. Learn how increasing standards of fairness and transparency can improve credibility and trust.
Logan Aimone, MJE, University of Chicago Laboratory High School adviser
Newsgathering
No “yes” or “no” answers allowed
You cannot write a story without a successful interview. This interactive session will get the juices flowing for setting up the perfect interview. No more “yes or no” or basic answers. These tips will always get you the best interview for the best story.
Erin Coggins, MJE, Sparkman High School adviser
General Interest, Design
One theme, two ways
We all appreciate being unique, but is all hope lost when you share the same theme as someone else? Find out how two schools from across the country found their own way to develop the same theme without sacrificing originality, and find out what lessons they learned along the way.
Sergio Yanes, CJE, Arvada High School adviser and
Katie Merritt, MJE, Darlington School adviser
Leadership & Team Building
Overcoming conflict in the classroom
Are you scared of conflict? Unsure of what to say in difficult situations? Is stress creating tension in your classroom? This course will explore the unique and sometimes unfortunate conflicts yearbook students and advisers encounter over the course of the year. We’ll examine and discuss common conflicts between staff members, advisers, outside teachers and administration while providing solutions and strategies for dealing with conflict.
Makena Busch, CJE, Mead High School adviser
Multimedia Broadcast, Photojournalism
Photographers: You are ready to be videographers
Photojournalists: You know more about videography than you realize. This session will connect photography concepts to videography to strengthen your visual storytelling skills.
Margie Raper, MJE, Highland Park High School adviser
Leadership & Team Building
Power up your staff
Empower your staff. Sharing responsibility produces better yearbooks and happier people. We will discuss proven ways to delegate work, organize the classroom and develop confidence in staff members, empowering them to lead.
Heather Nagel, CJE, Christ Presbyterian Academy adviser
with students Lucy Ellis and Sophie Nabors
Multimedia Broadcast, Career Advice, Newsgathering, Writing
Preparing for a career in news production
Information about what you should know and what you should do if you are planning on a career in any facet of news production from a veteran TV and Radio producer and the faculty supervisor for Temple University’s live newscast, Temple Update. Topics include: news package production, show producing, and how college graduates are getting jobs in the industry.
Peter Jaroff, Temple University faculty adviser
General Interest, Advising, Multimedia Broadcast
Producing your first documentary
This workshop will cover the basics of the documentary, from preproduction to filming to promotion. Topics include defining a documentary; finding a story, research and your own voice; preparing to shoot interviews and b-roll; and using logs, outlines and scripts.
Robert Adanto, Brentwood School adviser
Advising
Program building tips for COVID-19 and beyond
Five award-winning publications advisers offer tips on recruitment, retention and refocusing to help you build a vibrant publications program for all times.
Linda Puntney, MJE, retired professor from Kansas State University
Multimedia Broadcast
Project workflow for news packages
Learn an efficient and successful project workflow techniques when creating videos for your school broadcast or online news. Don will share his ideas for pre-production planning, critical phase tracking, post-production planning, final project distribution, and project evaluation and grading.
Don Goble, multimedia instructor at Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Advising
Purposeful partnerships
Want to get your introductory journalism students involved in a new way? Invite different ways to have discourse for your students by building cross-level, interdisciplinary partnerships with students from elementary school to post-secondary levels. Learn about partnerships that one adviser has experienced to help bring these partnerships into your classroom.
Shelby Schmidt, CJE, Omaha North High Magnet School adviser
News Gathering
Quick hit investigative stories for high school journalists
GBH senior reporter Jenifer McKim details a list of rich topics for ambitious student journalists to carry out investigations on their own turf. Topics include how to cover health and safety violations in high school cafeterias, gender disparities in sports, the missing faces of homeless youth and equitable pay for teachers.
Jenifer McKim, senior investigative reporter for GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting
Multimedia Broadcast, Career Advice
Reaching the major leagues
This will look at the journey for reaching the major leagues as a play-by-play announcer and lessons learned trying to get there and lessons learned from being there.
Geoff Arnold, Baltimore Orioles sportscaster
Law & Ethics
Rethinking takedown requests
News organizations are increasingly being asked to remove content from their websites for the sake of individuals’ privacy. This session will explore the ethical and legal implications of agreeing — or refusing — to comply with such requests, as well as providing a roadmap for creating a clear and equitable takedown policy.
Kelly Furnas, MJE, Elon University professor
Advising, Design
Set the mood. Set the style.
This session will give you the tools you need to create a staff mood board to inspire the overall look and feel of your yearbook, offering tips on how to incorporate well-designed magazines into your yearbook design. This session will also give you pointers on how to use a staff mood board to develop a style guide that will give your yearbook consistency and cohesion.
Ericka Muncy, Jupiter High School adviser
Newsgathering
Small school, big story ideas
If your publications staff has ever uttered, “We don’t have story ideas because nothing happens here” then this session is for you. Tips on how to generate story ideas for your newspaper, newsmagazine, news website, social media and/or yearbook will be shared in this presentation so that you will have consistent coverage and fresh all year long.
Adriana Chavira, MJE, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School adviser
Multimedia Broadcast, Design, News Literacy, Newsgathering, Online, Photojournalism, Writing
Speak the truth: A call for student voices
Student Voices Powered by the Urban Media Project and Butler University is seeking young media creators to develop 21st Century Skills in project-based programs that connect them to their communities and empower them to raise their voices for positive change through Media Creation and Multimedia Storytelling. We’ll tell you how to produce relevant multimedia projects with a minimal budget, restricted access and limited equipment, but lots of ideas, energy and passion.
Donna Griffin, Griffin Media and Publishing author
General Interest, Advising, Newsgathering, Online
Sports 365: A year of coverage
Are you having a difficult time covering the teams at your school? This session will showcase how one media group covers a team for close to 365 days. In the process, they find a way to tell better stories.
Chris Waugaman, MJE, Virginia State University adjunct professor
Photojournalism
Stand here, use this lens, get better photos
Understanding how to capture great photos is a balance between three concepts: knowing where to position yourself, knowing your equipment, and knowing how to anticipate the moment. This session will give you a few simple rules to get closer to your subject and shoot better photos for your publication.
Chris Waugaman, MJE, Virginia State University adjunct professor
Multimedia Broadcast
Stand up
Learn how to keep your viewers engaged by creating innovative stand ups for your broadcast and digital stories. Stand ups can be a great tool for talent to demonstrate a part of their story and in this session you will hear tips and tricks to writing, shooting and editing creative stand ups.
Margie Raper, MJE, Highland Park High School adviser
Photojournalism
Stepping up your sports photography game
We will discuss many different sports — the where to stand, what am I looking for, how to shoot, what settings to use and more. We will also discuss in emotions in sports photography and storytelling.
Kyle Carter, CJE, Richland R-1 School adviser
Career Advice
The 7 skills you need to beat the competition
As a trainer for the country’s leading network of investigative journalists (and a former high school, college and full-time reporter), Sarah Hutchins knows what newsrooms are looking for in the next generation of journalists. She’ll share seven skills you should develop now to set yourself apart from the competition in college, during an internship and beyond.
Sarah Hutchins, Investigative Reporters & Editors training director
Multimedia Broadcast, Newsgathering, Online
The art of producing short video documentaries
This session offers a lesson in the many steps taken to report, shoot and edit short documentary video stories. Come away with a broad understanding of how to operate as a one-person video journalist.
Matthew Orr, Northwestern University assistant professor
Advising, Writing
The building blocks of strong writing
Strong writing is the foundation of journalism, but it can also be one of the most time-consuming skills to hone when you’re rushing to meet deadlines. We’ll provide you some tips, resources, rubrics and takeaways — everything from the framework of a semester-long Introduction to Journalism course to ways to adapt that curriculum for a staff working on deadline.
Erin Miller, Trinity Prep adviser
Advising
The coaching way … with design
Many of us know Chip Scanlan’s “The Coaching Way” as an ideal strategy to teach writing. But a little secret Wilderman discovered … it also works brilliantly when teaching design — especially when you have a class full of students at different levels of skill and experiences.
Melanie Wilderman, Oklahoma Scholastic Media director
Photojournalism
The eyes have it
Portraits have become more and more important in yearbooks. Here are some tips for doing a better job.
Mitch Ziegler, CJE, retired journalism adviser
Leadership & Team Building
The future of team building: Creativity is king
To keep up with high-pressure and quick turnarounds (whether for Google or your local high school) without burning out, it is crucial to build a strong team culture of creativity and unity. This presentation is an overview of why creativity is key to any team’s success, what that looks like practically on a variety of scales, and how to keep the people at the helm of team building as energized and creative as everyone else.
Allie Jones, creative strategist with House of Sorcery
General Interest
The need for diverse perspectives in newsrooms
One of the most important things that the past two years have taught us is that journalism is better when we include diverse perspectives in our news stories. A veteran professor and journalist, David Mindich will offer some historical and present-day examples of how diversity changes and improves coverage.
David Mindich, Temple University journalism department chair
Multimedia Broadcast
The podcast flex: The varied skills of podcasting
Broadcasting yourself with a podcast is so much more than sharing your perspective with the world. It’s a vehicle for building a personal brand, improving as a communicator, growing your network and flexing your entrepreneurial muscles. Learn what young journalists can gain from podcasting and consider what topics are best suited for your passion and skillset.
Bill Zimmerman, Penn State lecturer
Law & Ethics
The Snapchat cheerleader and online free speech
This session outlines the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahanoy v. B.L., aka “the Snapchat Cheerleader” case. The speaker will talk about its legacy for students’ online speech and punishment in extracurricular activities.
Brett Johnson, University of Missouri assistant professor
Advising, News Literacy
Tools for teaching news and media literacy
For advisers, this session will explore tools, technology and curricular ideas for incorporating news and media literacy into your introductory and publications courses.
Megan Fromm, MJE, Grand Junction High School adviser
General Interest, Design
Warning: Graphic content
Understanding how audiences consume information is essential to the success of all media outlets. In this session, we’ll look at ways to improve the visual communication of your work that will keep your audience engaged.
Brian Hayes, MJE, Ball State University instructor
General Interest, Design
Welcome to a world of type
From road signs and posters to business identities and websites, we rely on letterforms to communicate. Our dependance on typography has made national headlines. This session will explore the importance of selecting the appropriate fonts to communicate.
Ana Rosenthal, CJE, The Episcopal School of Dallas adviser
Career Advice, Online, Writing
Working in sports media: Statistical storytelling
If you want to work in sports media, understanding how to use statistics is extremely important. This speaker shares stories from his career and real-world examples to show good habits and practices to develop at a young age.
Mark Simon, “Journalism Salute” podcast producer and host
Editing, Newsgathering, Writing
Wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot poll
Student journalists want to tackle ambitious stories — drug use, teen sex, bullying — but they struggle for sources. Their solution? They put polls up on social media for anyone to answer. But these surveys are often misleading or plain wrong. This session shows more revealing (and trustworthy) ways to research your most sensitive stories.
Eric Thomas, MJE, Kansas Scholastic Press Association executive director
