MIPA: Bringing Knowledge To Young Minds
The Panther and Uncaged staffs learn to strengthens their journalism
Rushing to get off the bus and in the door while hundreds of young teens all bunch together to get in, a group of 50 local high school journalists started the day at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) Fall Journalism Conference in October.
Staffers from the jr. high and high school yearbooks, as well as Uncaged news, readied themselves to go to the sessions that they picked.
“First, I had Power Reporting,” freshman Josh Pena said, who went on to take 10 Things I Hate About High School Newspaper and Interviewing for the Story.
“Now, as a current yearbook student, I probably should’ve taken more design-based classes, but those are not really what I’m interested in. If I stay at Stockbridge Community Schools for a while, then I plan on taking up journalism instead.”
This fall conference brought 2,000 Michigan students, journalists and their advisers for a day of nearly 80 breakout sessions to learn about how to be better journalists.
All sessions were designed to help them hone their skills in writing, editing, photography, video, yearbook, design and social media. They all went into different classes or sessions, ready to explore new ideas, to learn new material.
“It was really good, I learned a lot of tips and tricks on becoming a better writer,” sophomore Makenna Allison said.
The MIPA field trip was a very good experience for some students who wanted to learn more about cameras, for example, the aperture or the white balance, or the format of the SD card.
“I learned more depth about ISO. It was a good thing, because I didn’t really understand it at first,” Allison said.” For some students, MIPA exposed them to something new.
“The entire thing was honestly so incredible. I tend to keep my expectations low, just in case something doesn’t turn out. The MIPA conference exceeded every single one of expectations and then some,” Pena said.
The sessions turned out to be useful.
“It helped me because it had a lot of different sessions I could take. I wasn’t forced to take a class I didn’t need to take.” Assistant editor for Uncaged Hannah Bolton said.“So, I could take things on Indesign because I had never used it, so that really helped to get tip and tricks.”
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