By: Amber Ivey
While most students were sitting in classes on Wednesday, Nov. 14 through Friday, Nov. 16 I, along with five other journalism students, was in San Antonio, Texas competing in a national journalism convention. We had to be at Kansas City International airport at 5:30 in the morning on Wednesday and arrived in San Antonio at 10:30 in the morning. We spent the rest of the day sight seeing and shopping around Downtown San Antonio. That night we went to a pizza restaurant and talked about this year’s yearbook. On Thursday, I went to a photography class with senior Megan Jefferies which lasted from 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. We had to walk around the River Walk and take pictures for four hours. The River Walk is a winding river frames with sidewalks and shopping areas. We then had a lunch break when we met up with the rest of our staff and Christina Geabhart to eat at an Italian restaurant. Thursday night we had a Key Note speaker who presented about the things he had covered. He showed us a slideshow of pictures he look during the aftermath of the Columbine shooting. On Friday we all went to different classes throughout the day to learn more photography, writing, being a leader, designing and other classes to make this year’s yearbook and newspaper better than ever. Friday night Oak Park graduates Derek Byrne and Carly Evans came down to have dinner with us at a Mexican restaurant. We left on Saturday afternoon around 4:30.
During this time in San Antonio, we had plenty of opportunities to learn more and become a better staff, but the most important concept we all got out of the experience was becoming a closer staff. We shared a great amount of laughs and we talked about serious topics in the late hours of the night that ultimately brings a staff together. When you have a staff that is closer, you have a staff that will work better together. It was tough to have such a wide variety of personalities together for four days and nights, but in the end we made it work and ended the week closer than ever. I think it is very important to have opportunities for a staff or a team to grow together and bond so you know the type of people you are working with and that makes it easier to work with them since you know how they operate. Our school should provide more opportunities like this.