September 25, 2018
KSPA Regional Conference hosts 200 high school journalists and advisors
Around 200 high school journalists and advisers visited the K-State Student Union for the Kansas Scholastic Press Association's annual fall conference on Tuesday, Sept. 18. This year's conference included a tour around the state. Wichita State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas all hosted different schools for a few hours of professional journalism training with some of Kansas' most talented journalism minds.
The fall conference provided more than 20 different sessions from journalism faculty in JMC, interrelated departmental speakers in agricultural communications and leadership studies, Manhattan journalism and media professionals and high school advisers from local schools. The high school journalists also were greeted with a keynote presentation from Jamie Squire, a nationally recognized photographer who has shot around the world, including the Olympic games and other major sporting events in the NBA, NFL and MLB.
Spencer O'Daniel, Kansas Scholastic Press Association liaison for the K-State conference, was pleased with the student numbers and how the event went overall.
"While our school numbers were down overall, each of the 10 schools who attended brought on average 15-20 total students," O'Daniel said. "This was our first time hosting the event since 2015, and our numbers were very close to the numbers from three years ago. The student enthusiasm was off the charts, and I know that our presenters thoroughly enjoyed the time they were able to spend with these future journalists."