Journalism falls under its own category for class style: unlike others, journalism is very student-led. Journalism gives students the ability to give mini lessons and initially get a feel of how to lead a class. MIPA is a journalism conference that students, mostly editors, and advisers go on, this allows students to widen their horizon on different aspects of journalism.
“You have the three mini sessions, and those three sessions range from anything from reviewing an album, like music, to building a website and writing photo captions. Anything you can think of, there’s going to be a class generally about it,” Bleuprint Editor-in-Chief Dane McCarley said.
Student editors from the journalism class enjoy the ability to interact with others that have the same interests and goals as them in the journalistic field.
“I really like getting to see and talk to other people who are interested in the same things as me,” Bleuprint Print Editor Sylivia Egerton said. “And they have a bunch of other newspapers that you can pick up, so I like to take them and see other people’s work and how they do it.”
Students think that this experience would be beneficial to the learning portion of journalism, especially those who seek a profession from it.
“I think a lot of people could really benefit from this conference. And I think obviously that knowledge should be accessible to everybody,” Yearbook and Bleuprint Copy Editor Henry Parker said.
Students highly recommend attending this program as an editor of the journalism class. It seems to be extremely insightful and very helpful to get a full gage on what sections of journalism you are passionate about.
“If you’re an editor, or if you want to be an editor, you can go to MIPA in a couple years, and it’s really fun and extremely eye opening,” McCarley said.
The problem this year was arranging transportation to Lansing. Later, there was discussion about the journalism class of possible school sponsorship, and although not opposed, supervisors remain grateful for the access to the real world experience the trip provides.
“I’d love for the school to sponsor it,” social studies and Yearbook adviser Laura Woodruff said. “We just think it’s really valuable to leave the building and have this kind of real world experience. So, we’ve never pushed to ask the school to pay for it but obviously we’d be welcomed.”
Overall the CHS journalists who attended the school wide journalism conference found the experience extremely valuable and show gratitude for being able to bond with their fellow peers.
“They have so many seminars that are, really amazing for furthering your understanding of how to write something, and then also just more about appreciating journalism as a whole. And then I think it’s just really good for our class culture. And I think everyone appreciates the time to bond,” Egerton said.
