Recently my fellow classmates and I took a trip to the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for a journalism workshop.

The workshop, presented by CLASS! Publications, was open to all high school students who are active on their newspaper staffs.

Many schools attended to learn and share techniques. Most of the schools brought newspapers from this year to share and to compare with others.

“We had so much fun, and I learned so much,” says Sierra Vista High School junior Ashley Oberling. “Even though I have been in journalism for three years now, I got so much information out of the conference.”

There were different workshops that each group attended. Topics such as sports writing, plagiarism, what a news story is all about, and all the different careers that are offered in the journalism field are some of the topics that were addressed.

The information given was extremely helpful and very informative. We heard from many different people who write for the Las Vegas Sun and also some television newscasters who attended to speak to us about what they do, day in and day out.

Columnists and newscasters compared and contrasted their own jobs so that we could see the difference. We saw many awesome presentations and watched many good news segments to see how the pros do it.

“The (CLASS!) workshop was good,” says Sierra Vista senior Casey Piggott. “It really taught us to work as a team and to work through all the situations that we were handed.”

Those of us student journalists who attended really enjoyed the workshop, and it helped us to realize that we are not working on our school newspapers just for ourselves, but rather for the students at our schools.

The number one reason we are motivated to put a paper out every month is because we want to inform our schools and to recognize the accomplishments of the students. It is important for us to let our readers know what is going on. We want them to know what is happening in the world, and we want to know what their thoughts are as well.

With that being said, please contribute to your school newspaper. We would love for the students to be not just more active in what gets printed in the paper, but also to be more active in school. Submit letters, poems, opinion writing or anything that you would like to see printed in your paper.

If you are thinking about pursuing a career in the journalism field, then this is your chance to gain some experience and get published. In addition, it is a great sense of accomplishment to see your work printed.

So, if you would like to inform the student body about your particular viewpoint, please contact the newspaper staff at your school.

Editor’s Note: While some high school newspapers are produced solely by their journalism staffs, others are open to including articles from their readers. Check with your school’s journalism adviser for your school’s policy. As always, CLASS! welcomes articles, opinions, reviews, poetry, artwork, cartoons and photography from all high school students throughout Clark County, not just those in journalism classes. For more information, see the ad at the bottom of this page.

-Return to December 2003 Issue-