Alexis Tainter, Jake Chiarelli and Jacob Lintner contributed to this story. 

On April 16, 12 publications students from Howell North traveled to Denver for the 2015 JEA/NSPA Spring National Convention.

Students from all over the country come to the convention to participate in write off competitions, attend sessions led by professionals and advisers, and award ceremonies, all with other students from around the country. FHN even received the First Amendment Press Freedom Award at the convention. Jim Streisel, an adviser from Carmel High School in Indiana, is also at the convention. Streisel has taken his students on 20 trips and believes students can benefit from attending the national conventions.

“I think it’s awesome when they come to these conventions because they hear voices that are not mine telling them things that are awesome and it gives them great ideas and new things to try that they may not have even considered,” Streisel said.

Another person at the convention this weekend is Taylor Blanchard. This is her fifth trip to a national convention. She is currently a freshman at Mizzou but in previous years she attended conventions with her high school, Mountain Vista in Colorado. Each student was allowed to attend the national conventions through their adviser. Students paid for the trip on their own without any fundraisers. After her first Nationals trip, Taylor knew she would return.

“The first one was so amazing,” Taylor Blanchard said. “I was a sophomore so I had some experience but I was still getting
While other schools do not participate in fundraisers, Howell North students have the option to use money obtained through fundraising to help pay for the trip. Of the 12 students in Denver from Howell North, Sophomore Amanda Eckhard, was the only one that decided to raise money for her first nationals trip.

“Even though I didn’t have enough money to pay for me to go and neither did my parents, it was still something I wanted to do,” Eckhard said. “I really wanted to come to this originally and I wanted to be apart of this because I haven’t been able to. Everyone comes back to school with such fun exciting stories and great ideas so I wanted to be one of those. I definitely plan on fundraising again to go to another one.”

The next JEA/NSPA Nationals Convention is the fall in Orlando from Nov. 12-15.

For updates on FHN’s trip to the Denver convention, search #CO26 on Twitter, or click here for a Storify on their travels.