The yearbook, newspaper, and photojournalism staff traveled to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Fall conference in New York City this weekend. These publications staff students attended sessions to learn different skills and hear from professionals in the journalism industry. Students paid for their air travel while fundraising covered the conference and hotel.

“I’m super excited, honestly, for the conference itself, just to meet people who are also doing in-school newspapers and, just to see what their experiences are like,” senior Lourdes Hernandez, newspaper staff, said. “Because obviously, you always do the same thing in newspaper, but across different schools, you might write about very different things.”

While students have an online paper, exclusively, they will get the chance to meet students from other schools that also have a print paper. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to meet broadcast and other multimedia program staff who have gone through a different experience.

Not only will members learn valuable skills, but they will also work on team building and communication. Students will arrive Friday evening Nov. 1 and leave early Tuesday morning.

“So, the purpose of this trip is it’s a great team bonding exercise, essentially. As part of yearbook staff, we’re this big team, and we really need to be able to get to know each other,” senior Mary Bahrami, yearbook editor, said, “because we have to create this thing that’s so personal to the student body to get to that level of personability.”

Some students like Bahrami went on a very similar trip in March of 2022 also to New York. Students will have the opportunity to go to CSPA, learn different skills, and get better at what they do.

“I’m really excited that we’re doing this program at Columbia University,” Bahrami said. “So, we get to learn a lot about how to create a yearbook, theme, development, design, writing, and just really hone in on our skills and get the book to the next level – really improve it further.”