By Tim Delouchery
Staff Writer
The New England Scholastic Press Association hosted its 65th annual conference on Friday, May 3 at Boston University. The WA Ghostwriter staff, along with high school newspapers from all across New England attended.
The day was comprised of three 50 minute workshops, a speech from Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory, and the presentation of the All-New England awards.
The three workshop sessions consisted of featured speakers presenting on a journalism topics, from feature writing, to press law, to careers in broadcast. Some speakers worked at BU in the journalism department, while others came from other high schools, or in some cases, out of retirement. There were plenty of sessions available to the attending students and advisers, however they all served the same purpose in attempting to improve on journalism skills.
“It was an educational experience and I learned a lot,” said junior Craig Brinkerhoff.
After two workshops, all attending the conference piled into to the Morse Auditorium to hear the keynote speech from Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory. McGrory spoke about himself first, and how he came to be in his position as the head of the Globe. He then talked about the future of newspapers themselves, and the future of the Globe specifically. He closed his speech and opened up questions from the audience.
The audience’s questions focused strongly on the recent tragedy at the Boston Marathon. McGrory talked about how the Globe dealt with misinformation and how the Globe had high expectations for how they covered the event, since it occurred in their city.
Students returned to BU for a final workshop. The last block of the conference was held in the auditorium. There, NESPA presented the All-New England awards to the most deserving news staffs. Though no All-New England awards were received, Westford came home with five other awards, including a special achievement award given to Ethan Walshe and Alex Gournaris for an article they wrote together about Westford Academy and their plans to introduce new security measures.
The next award presented to the Ghostwriter staff was another special achievement award given to Abby Cianciolo, who wrote about the celebration of life for Phyllis Seddon.
The Ghostwriter also wrote an award-winning feature on Student Resource Officer, Justin Agraz. “Agraz bridges the gap between school and safety“, written by Lauren Cullen, Kai Lou Yue, and Amy Keum, received a special achievement award.
The next award taken home was not for an article, but for the design of the web page. The special achievement award was granted to Ethan Walshe.
The final award was received by the entire Ghostwriter Staff. Westford received the highest achievement award for having a well-run online newspaper. It is the highest available award before the All-New England awards.
Journalism teacher and head of the Ghostwriter, Janet Fonden also gave praise to the conference.
“It was good for students to be able to choose workshops based on their own fields of interests,” said Fonden. “Also, I think it brought the staff together in a way that any other event doesn’t.”
The Ghostwriter will be attending another conference in the fall hosted by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. It is a four day event, and will be the first time that Westford attends.
