HUBsters win awards, tour Los Angeles at annual journalism convention
By Emma Juchau,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
From Denver to Seattle, the National High School Journalism Convention is held every spring in a different location in the United States. The 2016 NHSJC took place in Los Angeles, and was well-attended by Davis High HUBsters representing BlueDevilHUB.com, the Spoke literary magazine, The HUB newspaper and the DHS yearbook.
“We didn’t get much sleep; we’re all exhausted, but we had a great time,” senior website editor-in-chief Kellen Browning said.
The HUB won plenty of accolades at this year’s convention: BlueDevilHUB.com was an online Pacemaker winner for the first time since 2011, and Spoke, entered in contests for the first time, took sixth place in Best of Show. Additionally, The HUB newspaper won its first ever Best of Show, and Browning was honored with the Journalism Education Association’s National Journalist of the Year award.
On top of that, four HUBsters–Browning and juniors Isabella Ainsworth, Claire Alongi and Denna Changizi–participated in the Quiz Bowl competition for the first time ever. The group had little prior preparation and was extremely proud of its second-place performance.
“I really enjoyed the journalism Quiz Bowl. That was fun,” Browning said. “Torrey Pines [the eventual winners] did really well, but we got second; that was exciting.”
During the days at the convention, HUBsters attended various workshops to learn more about writing, leadership, design, broadcast, multimedia journalism and industry strategies. Workshops were led by journalism advisers from across the country, LA Times staffers and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters from around the U.S.
The HUB road trip included stops at tourist locations along the way, including the historic Griffith Observatory and Sony Studios.
The Sony Studio tour, led by Sony’s one and only Michael Cummings, an up-and-coming actor who has played background characters for several well-known TV shows, was a highlight for HUBsters like junior Claire Richey.
“I got to see a bunch of famous landmarks and behind-the-scenes of all the movies and how they worked, and it was awesome,” Richey said. “Shout out to Michael Cummings, he was awesome. […] He knew a bunch of stuff–I don’t know how he memorized it all.”
HUBsters also attended a live comedy show entitled “Groundlings come out to Play-aaay,” performed by The Groundlings in their downtown Los Angeles theater. The two-hour show was a hilarious collection of sketches that HUBsters and LA natives alike enjoyed immensely.
On the last evening, HUB visited Disney’s El Capitan movie theater to see “The Jungle Book.” Afterwards, HUBsters ventured across the street to see the Walk of Fame, where they found the stars of celebrities including Julie Andrews, Orlando Bloom, Michael Jackson and Hugh Jackman.
