From Thursday, November 10th, through Saturday, November 13th, six WA Ghostwriter staff members traveled to Indianapolis for the National High School Journalism Conference (NHSJC), accompanied by advisers Janet Fonden and Jack Holbrook. Along with over 3,500 journalism students, the staff attended three days worth of workshops lead by both locally and nationally known journalists and teachers.

This conference was a big success for the staff, as freshman staff writer Conor Bellone and junior managing editor Andrew Friel received honorable mentions for their respective writing competitions.

The staff arrived in Indiana one day prior to the actual start of the convention and got to familiarize themselves with the Hoosier state. After spending the afternoon touring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and strolling along the city canal, the staff was looking forward to three days of journalism.

On the first day of the convention, each staff member attended a pre-convention workshop. From photoshop to writing workshops, students were able to spend an extensive period of time in each of their workshops. However, some of these workshops were only half a day long, so some students were given media tours throughout Indianapolis.

On Thursday night, all students and advisers attended a keynote presentation. Presented by local Indianapolis reporter Kevin Rader and videographer Steve Rhodes, the duo shared their favorite news stories they have done throughout their years at the news station.

The conference finally kicked into gear on Friday morning, when the workshops began. From the morning until the late afternoon, students and advisers were free to attend any workshop of their choice. From tips on how ask better interview questions, to how to write more engaging stories, convention attendees were able to gather lots of information from both locally and nationally known journalists and teachers. Among the many career journalists in attendance was Bob Kravitz, the writer that broke the “Deflategate” story, the scandal that emerged following the Patriots’ 2015 AFC championship victory.

In the early evening, students attended convention competitions. Within the staff, students participated in a review article write-off, news article write-off, and a sports article write-off. Staff members also attended a photo critique session and an advertising creation critique session for work they had submitted before the conference.

These competitions ended up being the highlight of the trip for the staff, as they ended up taking home a couple of awards. Bellone was awarded an honorable mention in his opinion write-off competition, and Friel was also awarded an honorable mention in his sports write-off.

Being a freshman, Bellone was quite happy with his national recognition.

“It was amazing to get an award my first time. I’m new to all of this, so it is cool to have all of my skills shown on a national scale,” Bellone said.

As for Friel, he felt honored to receive his award, and was even happier to be awarded at a conference that was attended by so many other high school journalists.

“I was pleased to be recognized for my work, especially at a conference with so many other talented student journalists,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, the staff headed back to Massachusetts, after another day of convention workshops on Saturday, and nearly four days in Indiana.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Westford Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.