STORY BY MYA MCDONALD
PHOTOS BY JASMINE ROBLES
On Wednesday, September 25 students and advisors, from surrounding high schools, gathered in the Memorial Union of Fort Hays State University to learn more about journalism at the 2019 Fall KSPA Conference. Multiple speakers were invited to speak about different topics that would be helpful to high school journalists and their advisors.
Executive Director of KSPA, Eric Thomas, spoke with students about a variety of topics, including how to properly cover controversial topics, and the laws that protect high school journalists from censorship.
“I want students to walk away empowered, and feel that they not only have the ability, but also the right to cover controversy,” Thomas said. “The other goal is that students can walk away with new skills, so this conference has been loaded up with different sessions where students can learn different skills so they know exactly how to do stuff in the future.”
Many students, such as Kylie Solida from Phillipsburg High School, plan to exercise the skills they obtained from the KSPA conference in their school’s journalism programs and their journalism contests throughout the year.
“I learned a lot about the Kansas Student Publications Act and how it gives students the right to write about controversial topics,” Solida said. “My favorite part about the conference was learning more about how to write about controversial topics and how to better prepare our yearbook class for the deadlines throughout the year.”
Different speakers attended the event in order to cover all perspectives of modern journalism. Latisha Haag, the past conference coordinator, attended the event as a session workshop leader. She led a roundtable discussion about “How to Lead a Staff.”
“We focused on topics like staff motivation, meeting deadlines, organizing content, advertising, and fundraising options. I hope the biggest takeaway from the event is not only the knowledge from the sessions, but a renewed sense of spirit for the school year,” Haag said.
The goal of inviting different speakers is that students and their advisors were able to partake in new experiences that will help for the remaining school year.
“It is an important event not only to gain knowledge on pertinent topics in student journalism, but also a chance to network with others dealing with the same issues. Student publications can be daunting and it is hopeful that after a morning in sessions, the staff that attend are geared up to take on the school year,” Haag said.
In the future, KSPA is hoping to reconnect with previous generations of journalists, that started with KSPA, to see how more support can be created to expand the horizons of the future of KSPA.