Eagle hosts journalism conference

High school students from throughout the panhandle with an interest in journalism convened in the Student Center on the Chadron State College campus, Monday, for the first-ever “We the Journalists” Constitution Day conference.

The half-day conference gave students from the northwest Nebraska panhandle the opportunity to learn about journalism from area professionals.

Sixty students and eight advisers from seven schools attended the conference.

Michael D. Kennedy, journalism instructor and The Eagle adviser, said the conference had three main objectives: to celebrate Constitution Day; open doors between CSC’s journalism program and local high school journalism and yearbook programs; and build bridges between high school media students and their community newspapers.

“Based on our turnout and responses from the attendees I spoke with,” Kennedy said, “I’d say we met all three objectives.

“We’re really pleased with the turnout,” he said. “We invited 16 schools within a two-hour drive; seven showed up, representing a nearly 50 percent response rate. In my mind that’s a pretty good turnout for our first conference.”

The students who attended, along with their advisers, participated in sessions led by professional journalists centered around photojournalism, media law and types of stories found in newspapers.

The day’s final session focused on the First Amendment. Greg Awtry, publisher of the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, delivered opening remarks.

Afterward, emcee Michael D. Kennedy led the high school audience in an open discussion about journalism and the First Amendment. Students expressed their opinions about the First Amendment and its five freedoms.

Presenters at the conference included Brad Staman, Star-Herald editor; Kerri Rempp, Chadron Record editor and Southern Hills general manager; Janelle Kesterson, Bridgeport News-Blade editor; Spike Jordan, Hemingford Ledger editor; Preston Goehring, Scottsbluff Star-Herald sports writer; Kennedy; and Awtry.

The conference was entirely student centered, with members of The Eagle staff and students in the communications department news journalism course at CSC.

Kennedy plans for this to be an annual event at CSC.

“We are already looking forward to next year,” Kennedy said, “and a much larger crowd.”