Last Friday, journalism students went on an inspiring trip to Boston University to attend the annual New England Scholastic Press Association Conference. At Boston University, young journalists were able to participate in workshops ranging from digital video storytelling, sports reporting, and even photo journalism.
Throughout the day, there were three workshops, a keynote speaker, and an awards ceremony.
Session one began at 9 am, journalists had a selection of eleven unique meetings including: Design Ain’t Dead, Digital Video Storytelling, Agentic Ai, Cell Phones in School, Writing Award Worthy Opion Articles, Ethic Case Students, Photojournliam, Contests and Awards, Yearbook Advisers, Leveraging Social Media and finally Sports Coverage. No matter what students chose, all conferences offered engaging topics for students to learn.
During Sports Coverage Outside of the Big Four held by Kat Cornetta, a freelance sportswriter, intrigued students learned how to cover non-traditional sports. The main sports to be written about are football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. Cornetta described ways for remarkable, unseen athletes to be recognized.
Oakmont junior, Cara Landry, attended Cornetta’s meeting. “It was really interesting how everyone had a different take on the sports world. It gave us a unique opportunity to take advice from different backgrounds.”
Session two began at 10 am, again, journalists had a diverse selection of meetings. One session included: Writing Features for Newspaper & Yearbook. In this session, journalists were taught about understanding feature writing, story development, and interviewing skills by Newton South English teacher and yearbook adviser, Mr. Brian Baron.
Oakmont junior, Anthony Fidler, participated in Baron’s conference. “Something that stuck with me about the conferences was Mr. Barron. His teaching style was so unique and fresh compared to a lot of the teachers I had previously had. What he taught was how to write better features for the school paper— everything he said was very thoughtful and impactful, with how he made the lesson fun to learn.”
All journalists gathered for the keynote speaker, Ben Reininga. Reininga is the formal head of editorial of Snapchat. He discussed the rise of creator journalists as well as methods and tools to connect to audiences.
Currently, more people have developed distrust within the media. People are moving from traditional news outlets to social media as a result of distrust. This is where Ben Reininga comes in and explains current-day events via social media.
Mr. Mark Nevard, 12 12-year Oakmonitor adviser and journalism teacher, felt fortunate to see such passion for the art of journalism.
“To see these student-journalists improve this online publication because they care is inspiring. To see over 50 students want to be a part of it makes it special. And I am happy for their All-New England accolade,” Nevard said.
Journalists then moved on to session three to explore more ideas. One session held was Sports Reporting, hosted by Nicole Yang. Yang currently works at the Boston Globe and covers the Patriots.
Within this meeting, Nicole Yang discussed how to cover different things that happen in the sports world, including injuries, trades, and even doping.
At last, it was time for awards. Oakmont junior, Reagan Bouchard, was awarded 5th overall in the NESPA Colhum Writing Contest. The Oakmointor won 2nd place NESPA All-New England publication website.
This conference provided valuable insights for young journalists. Oakmont journalists carry new skills and perspectives that will undoubtedly benefit their work.
