Thirteen student members of the Strath Haven High School newspaper and yearbook teams commuted daily by SEPTA regional rail to the National High School Journalism Convention (NHSJC) in Philadelphia, Penn. from Nov. 7-10. Accompanied by yearbook co-adviser Mrs. Beth Cohen and newspaper and yearbook adviser Ms. Kate Plows, student journalists participated in three jam-packed days of workshops, contests, and educational sessions.
The fall convention is one of two annual conventions sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. With more than 3,600 student journalists and advisers in attendance, NHSJC is the nation’s largest gathering of high school journalists, advisers, and journalism teachers.
After extended workshops and tours throughout the day on Thursday, the team attended the evening opening keynote presentation by New York-based documentary filmmaker Matthew O. Henderson. The crowded hall at the Marriott Convention Center was a teaser for the packed convention sessions students would experience on Friday and Saturday.
“It was really great to see so many student journalists in one place at one time, especially the keynote on the first day,” sophomore Panther Press editor Evie Fernandez said. “There were so many people, which was crazy, but amazing… the people are a really nice community.”
Students were able to network with colleges, journalism organizations, and many students with similar interests at the exhibit hall and during convention sessions. Yearbook and newspaper staff members also learned from 30-minute individual critiques of recent publications with expert journalism educators.
All students participated in individual National Student Media Contests (NSMC), competing in photography, newspaper writing, and yearbook copy. As extracurricular participants in a convention mostly attended by curricular journalism students, the Strath Haven students participated in contests mostly to collect individualized feedback offered by judges rather than in anticipation of awards.
Still, Strath Haven finished out the convention with some national rankings in the National Student Media Contests, listed below.
- Kathryn Barrett ’27/ Excellent, First Year Photo
- Mia Fagone ’26 / Excellent, Yearbook Copy & Caption, Sports
- Kelly Montague ’25 / Excellent, Sports Action Photography
- Evie Fernandez ’27 / Honorable Mention, Review Writing
- Evelynn Lin ’25 / Honorable Mention, Yearbook Copy & Caption, Student Life
- Matthew Ramirez ’26 / Honorable Mention, Photo Story
- Matteo Ventresca ’25 / Honorable Mention, Sports Writing
In all, 1,326 students competed in photo, broadcast, graphic design, literary magazine, design, and writing contests, according to the JEA press release. There were 537 students recognized with 92 superior, 164 excellent, and 281 honorable mention awards. All students receive detailed feedback from two or more judges who reviewed their work.
In a surprising announcement that had the whole team cheering, The Panther Press website was awarded third place in Best of Show for high schools with an enrollment of fewer than 1,800. Best in Show rankings are limited to publications in attendance at the convention. Third place is a remarkable accomplishment for a club news publication. All nine of the other ranked publications are embedded in journalism classes. Haven collected additional individual rankings in the Best of Show contest, listed below.
- Kelly Montague ’25 / Photojournalism Sports Photo, 8th Place
- Matthew Ramirez ’26 / Photojournalism Sports Photo, 10th Place
- Matteo Ventresca ’25, Clark Kerkstra ’27 / Reporting News Story, 5th Place, School Board faces backlash amid superintendent’s departure, teacher contract disputes
- The Panther Press Website / Website (fewer than 1800 students), 3rd Place
To share resources on how to support club-based publications, Plows presented a conference session on Friday, Nov. 8 titled “From Extracurricular to Extraordinary.” Her presentation focused on ways to build student leadership and common-sense organization. Strath Haven student journalists answered questions and shared tips during the presentation. Plows also assisted as a judge in the photography contests and a volunteer at the information desk.
Students agreed that the convention was an intensely structured learning experience, as well as a chance to learn informally from others who were excited about student journalism.
“The thing I liked most about the convention was seeing all those student journalists going into one session,” senior Panther Press co-editor-in-chief Matteo Ventresca said. “It’s so cool because they all like the same thing you like, and that’s why they’re here. So you know that there are so many people that you have a commonality with.”
That shared interest in journalism stretched across the United States and beyond. According to an announcement at the opening keynote on Thursday, Nov. 7, students and advisers were in attendance from 681 schools, 50 states, and eight countries.
“I noticed that we were all asking a lot of questions, and we were still ‘journalism-ing’ even at the convention,” senior Panther Press co-editor-in-chief Evelynn Lin said. “We were still trying to get articles out, we were still trying to learn, we were still trying to build leadership and bonding with not just the people in our group, but also the people outside of it.”
Participants have shared some of their learning from the NHSJC experience in the blog posts below.
