Leaving late Wednesday night after a long seven hour school day, we traveled 2,680 miles from San Diego to our nation’s capital, to join thousands of student journalists for what became the largest National High School Journalism Convention in the history of the Journalism Education Association. Preparing as early as the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year, the editors were eager to plan for D.C., knowing it would be Mrs. Ryan’s first time taking students to a convention since the Silvertip was unable to attend either the fall of spring conventions due to the many adjustments that the class underwent during Mrs. Ryan’s first year: transitioning into a primarily online publication, preparing for possible adjustments under a new principal, and welcoming Mrs. Ryan into the world of journalism as our new advisor! 

   Against the odds, seven out of the 11 editors on staff were able to attend the convention after saving for many months in advance and hosting a rummage sale over the summer that raised over 350 dollars—which although in perspective gave us very little to boast, but served as a motive to not give up on our individual fundraising efforts. 

   Upon our arrival in D.C., we threw on our rain jackets and rode the metro around the city pretending to be locals with the help of Google maps and ASB Director Ms. Hinman, our chaperone. In a flash, we made our way to the Newseum to experience the Pulitzer Prize Photograph gallery and the Berlin Wall gallery before it officially closes to the public on Dec. 31, and headed over to the National Archives to see the foundational documents of our democracy such as the Bill of Rights which reminds us of our right to free speech.

  Staying true to the convention’s theme, “Now more than ever journalism matters”, we are looking forward to implementing a lot of what we learned in the workshops and strengthening our leadership dynamic, writing, designing, and approach to reporting to make journalism great again.