Nov. 12 held fun and excitement for over 700 journalism and yearbook students across Oregon at the annual Fall Press Day, including 30 MHS students.
Fall Press Day has been held at many different universities over the years. This year’s event was at University of Oregon and hosted by Northwest Scholastic Press.
The day was filled with educational courses and lectures to better students’ writing, photography and design skills. Many different classes were offered and students could take three over the course of the entire day.
At 9 a.m. the convention started with a keynote speaker, Andrew DeVigal, who spoke of the way receiving news will change in the next few years due to technology. After he finished, students were to attend whichever class they wanted for the first workshop. However, some students decided to participate in competitions rather than attend all of the offered workshops, including news, writing, feature writing, and a newly offered photo competition.
Senior John Hampton, along with journalism adviser Catherine Hampton, taught a workshop together titled “The Package: Design Tells the Story.”
Yearbook adviser Stephanie Howe said she enjoyed the workshops.
“The format of the workshops works really well,” Howe said. “They’re short enough to keep student’s attention, but long enough that they’re informative.”
Following the workshops, students filed back into the main ballroom to hear another keynote speaker, Barton Howe, who focused on students viewing themselves as storytellers no matter their situation.
“[The speech] was motivating. It had some really great interview techniques,” Howe said.
After Barton’s speech, awards were handed out to students who had entered into specific competitions. Senior Alyssa Lovell, and juniors Cheyenne McNeely and Sawyer Heckard all participated in different competitions and each won an award.
Lovell earned an award of Excellent in news writing, McNeely earned an Excellent in feature writing and Heckard won a Superior in the on-site photo competition.
Not only did specific students receive awards, but The Marshfield Times won an Excellent in the Best of Show category as well.
“I think overall it was really positive this year,” Howe said.
