This spring break, students from NIC’s Publication Club and the Sentinel took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to participate in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 10 media convention. While we were there we got to experience a lot of what Seattle and Tacoma have to offer and learn a couple of things too.
After we reached Seattle on Wednesday and loaded out of the van to check into the hotel, we took a short breather. The pass had been not as clear as we’d hoped but everyone was fine. The next morning we hit the city and headed to Seattle’s Pike Street Market to run the usual gambit down there. Personally, I make it a point get a Piroshky, a Russian pastry with meat, when I get to Seattle, but that’s just me. We had a long day lined up.
The Experience Music Project located in the avant-garde looking building at the base of the Space Needle was the next place we visited. We explored exhibits devoted to the band Nirvana (fitting), Horror Movies and the film “Avatar.” To anyone ever visiting Seattle, I would definitely recommend checking this place out and seeing the massive guitar tree statue in the center of the building, which is comprised of hundreds of guitars.
While we were in Seattle, the Seattle Times was kind enough to open their doors for us for us to give us a tour of the of their new offices and advice about pursuing a career in journalism in the 21st century and how the industry is transforming.
Their advice about how a newspaper can successfully adapt to a rapidly shifting market has proven invaluable and we intend to implement their suggestions as soon as possible for a more dynamic paper. We also visited the WSU campus and were amazed by their newspaper staff room (you have to see it to believe it). The second floor of the WSU library is equally as amazing; there’s a room that looks like it belongs at Hogwarts.
Finally on Saturday it was time to head to Tacoma to attend the convention. This year the convention was held at Pacific Lutheran University, which has a beautiful campus. After attending multiple sessions that taught us valuable skills like résumé building and how to properly cover a protest, we assembled for lunch and the awards ceremony. I’m proud to say that we won a dozen awards, including overall best in show for community colleges, which makes us finalists for the national SPJ award. We also won first-place awards in feature and news writing, as well as news and sports photography.
I’m extremely proud of our writers and photographers for their hard work this past year and I’m glad they’re receiving the recognition they deserve from a nationally recognized organization like the Society of Professional Journalists. I know that they’ll be continuing this tradition of excellence next semester and the journalism program at NIC will always be synonymous with exceptional reporting.
