On March 7, the Publications students took a field trip to attend SSP at Webster University. Here, the students went to many sessions to improve their journalism skills by getting tips from pros. They ended the day with an award ceremony.

“SSP was so fun,” junior Aly Doty said. “All of the staff won many awards, and I got everyone in my lunch to dance.”

At the beginning of the day, the students arrived at Webster and started their day off with a keynote speaker, Frank LoMonte, who is from SPLC. He discussed many reasons why student journalism was important and how he managed help students fight for their First Amendment rights. Afterwards, they continued on their day with going to different sessions about different topics such as photography, laws involving journalism, writing and more.

“My favorite part was Cathy Kuhlmeier actually came in to talk to us about Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier,” senior Alyssa Savage said. “It was really inspiring and she was really passionate about her experience.”

The publications staff ended their day with an awards ceremony where the adviser and students submitted their work for a placing. There were four categories that you could be placed in: Honorable Mention, Excellent, Superior, and Best of Show. There was a Superior placing for the North Star Magazine, an Excellent for the Excalibur yearbook, Best of Show for student life in the yearbook, plus many more personal awards. Savage stated that it was an unbelievable feeling to see her work win two superiors and one excellent and she felt very proud of herself afterwards.

“I remember last year when I attended SSP for the first time I saw everyone going up and getting awards and hoping I could do that,” junior Maddie Mitchell said. “So when I heard my name called for Best of Show, I was so shocked. It was an amazing feeling.”