by Sarah Nichols, MJE

Four advisers and their students have been selected as First-time Convention Grant recipients for the fall 2020 convention, which will take place virtually Nov. 19-21. 

The recipients include:

• Elizabeth DeOrnellas, The Hill School (Pottstown, Pennsylvania)
• Elizabeth Pellicane, Fluvanna County High School (Palmyra, Virginia)
• Melissa Perner, Ozona (Texas) High School
• Maria Salas, Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts (Laredo, Texas)

The application process asked candidates to identify what they aim to accomplish by exposing their students to the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.

“I hope to demonstrate to my students how far their voices can reach,” Salas said. “[Through the convention] I want my students to experience other students their age designing, writing and photographing their publications. I want to empower them to do the work I know they are capable of.”

Pellicane said among her top priorities are media ethics and diversity awareness. Her high school has 50 students involved in the news website, yearbook and other media productions.

“In a normal year, my greatest challenge as a journalism educator is to help students develop a passion for seeking out and capturing deeper, meaningful stories,” she said.

While the grant is open to any teacher who hasn’t previously attended a JEA/NSPA convention, it is geared toward newer advisers and those from underserved areas, including locations where a convention is unlikely to take place.

“We live in a very rural part of Texas and most of these students never leave this area. I want to expose them to as many possibilities as I can,” Perner said. She is a second-year teacher advising yearbook, newspaper and news website.

In the weeks prior to the convention, participants will receive guidance from JEA leaders regarding how to select sessions and prepare contest entries. The process involves helping students set goals and measurable outcomes, but some have already begun their planning. 

“My editors are interested in running training sessions for new staff, and they’re looking for ideas and resources. They also want to improve their own workflow and to increase their multimedia work,” DeOrnellas said. 

After the convention, students will work to present what they learned to their rest of their staff in order to implement ideas from the sessions they attended. In addition, advisers will share part of their experience with the scholastic journalism community by working with JEA Vice President Val Kibler, MJE.

“It’s so cool to feel the energy even from the emails the grant recipients send after they attend their first convention. I know what attending a convention did for my program when we first started attending, and seeing that same spark in kids and teachers really confirms how important it is that we continue to grow opportunities like these,” Kibler said.

The First-time Convention Grant provides complimentary registration for advisers and two of their students, a National Student Media Contest entry for each student, adviser participation in JEA’s Outreach Academy and one NSPA publication critique for each group.

JEA and NSPA also carried over four adviser recipients from the spring 2020 convention in Nashville, which was canceled due to COVID-19. Details from past participants are available here.