On March 15th, the Northern Illinois Press Association (NISPA) hosted a journalism conference at the College of DuPage for students all across the northern suburbs of Illinois to hone their journalistic skills and explore career prospects in the field.
Michelle Marecki, senior, attended the NISPA conference as part of the announcements/broadcasting team at Glenbard South. Haley Wong, Co Editor in Chief of the Glenbard South student newspaper, The Independent, also attended the NISPA conference. Wong attended the conference to “learn more about student journalism.”
Kicking off the conference, Brittany Hardaway, an anchor at 13 WREX, was the conference’s keynote speaker. Hardaway addressed the excited student journalists, sharing her passion with the crowd.
Marecki shared she was inspired by Hardaway’s story. After her speech, Marecki realized how attainable a career in broadcast journalism is.
After hearing the keynote speaker Wong expressed that, “Listening to the keynote speaker gush about broadcast journalism was a truly mind-blowing experience. I loved getting to know the ins and outs of what it’s like to be a news anchor, and her passion for her job convinced me to attend a session on broadcast journalism later that day.”
Marecki’s favorite session was hearing from a professional producer. She reflected that producers do more work than she thought as they write the scripts and run the show while it airs.
Marecki found inspiration in hearing from these professionals and wants to implement it into her work at Glenbard South. She was able to see “the real behind the scenes of what a news room is,” said Marecki. “I was a producer,” said Marecki, explaining her role on the Glenbard South announcements, “but I didn’t write the scripts for the show like producers do in the real world.” Marecki also explained how in the professional world news producers set the tone and dictate the stories that will go on air to the reporters. She said that she could adapt this to the Glenbard South newsroom by saying, “‘Okay this is the main theme, this is what I think you guys should do,’” to delegate stories that need to be covered by reporters.
Wong’s favorite session of the day was called “The Art of Criticizing the Arts” hosted by Dann Gire, a film critic for The Daily Herald. Wong said that she would be taking his insights with her in her own review writing. “I found so much inspiration in his persistent enthusiasm for review writing. His wit reminded me of how humor can be used in a review,” said Wong.
“After Dann Gire’s session, he told me that the only reason he got his job was because he followed a whim. He advised me to follow suit. I was awestruck,” said Wong.
“It was a great conference, and I feel like I learned a lot,” said Marecki in closing. Wong echoed this sentiment. “This conference connects student journalists with expert journalists. For some students, these professionals are mirrors into their futures. Hearing from people who have taken their passion from their high school paper to a world-renowned publication is a game-changer,” said Wong. Both would recommend this conference to their fellow student journalists at South.
The NISPA conference was a day of learning for all the student journalists that attended and each year boasts a greater number of attendees.
