On Saturday, November 4, three CCHS publications attended the annual District 7 Florida Scholastic Press Association convention at Nova Southeastern University, an event open to all middle school and high school publications from the counties of Broward, Martin and Palm Beach.
The convention shot off at 8 a.m. with an opening ceremony led by District 7 Directors Melissa Falkowski and Sarah Lerner. After welcoming the young journalists in the audience to the convention, Falkowski and Lerner invited the NSU Director of Student Media Michelle Manley to the stage. Manley provided students an overview of the various journalism programs NSU is planning to hold in the coming weeks and encouraged the group to participate in the annual raffle giveaway of a GoPro.
Then, District 7 student representative and Lariat Print Editor-in-Chief Kendyl Counts took to the stage to promote FSPA States, which will be taking place in Orlando at the Wyndham Orlando Resort between April 12-14 of 2018. Counts then went on to introduce the new FSPA District 7 representative – The Lariat’s staff writer Annabelle Rosa.
After a victory speech by Rosa, this year’s keynote speaker, Racquel Goldman, took the stage. Goldman is an entertainment journalist for the multimedia platform Stage Right Secrets as well as a Florida Panther in-arena host. In her speech, Goldman detailed how she overcame her own barriers, how the media industry is rapidly changing and how making connections has aided her in her journey. To go along with her message, Goldman posed a challenge to FSPA’s attendees: make two or three new connections throughout the convention’s festivities. Goldman rounded out her speech with one final word of advice for the aspiring journalists in the audience.
“Never let anyone tell you you don’t belong in this industry,” Goldman said. “You belong here, your soul belongs here.”
Goldman’s speech commenced the convention, and publication staffs dispersed to take part in On-the-Spot competitions or to attend various workshops across four 45-minute sessions. Contests ranged anywhere from Illustration to Broadcast Commentary to Selfie, and workshops covered a variety of topics from documentary filmmaking to publication layout and radio broadcast.
After four sessions of workshops and a provided lunch lasting until about 1:35 p.m., the convention finished off with a closing ceremony. At the closing ceremony the Carry-In and On-the-Spot contest winners were announced, as well as the FSPA Teacher of the Year, Cowboy Television’s (CTV) own Alfredo Pichardo.
“The best aspect of FSPA would probably be the camaraderie between all the different journalism programs of all the different schools,” Round Up editor Raquel Gonzalez said. “There’s competition between all of us but we all cheer for each other and there’s no hard feelings.”
The Lariat took home the following awards:
- 1st Place, OTS Editorial
- 2nd Place, Carry-In Contest: Personality Portrait
- 2nd Place, Carry In-Contest: Infographic
- 3rd Place, OTS News Story
- Excellent, Deadline Feature Story
- Excellent, Deadline Feature Story
- Excellent, Deadline Feature Story
- Honorable Mention, Selfie
- Honorable Mention, Sports Photography
- Honorable Mention, Club Photography
- Honorable Mention, Topic Page Spread
- Honorable Mention, Interactive Graphic
- Honorable Mention, Deadline Short Story
For more information on this year’s District 7 FSPA convention visit http://www.fspadistrict7.com/. And for more information on the upcoming Spring 2018 FSPA States, visit https://fspa.wildapricot.org/.
Photo by Ryan Sullivan
