About 475 students from 45 high schools attended Saturday’s NorCal
Media Day, the first formal collaboration between the San Francisco
Press Club and Journalism Education Association of Northern
California.
The daylong event, hosted at Palo Alto High School, attracted schools
as far away as Salinas and Sacramento to 50 sessions and an array of
contests and critique huddles.
The event merges an annual boot camp conducted by the SFPC with the
longtime JEANC conference. JEANC is the local chapter for the
Journalism Education Association that represents high schools
nationwide.
The topics included law and ethics, election coverage, photography,
feature writing, sportswriting, yearbook operations, social media and
video production.
“The enthusiasm of the students was contagious at NorCal Media Day, “
said SFPC President Antonia Ehlers. “The San Francisco Press Club
supported the event this year, and we were happy to judge the
extraordinary work of our Bay Area students. In addition, our board members were excited to teach a few workshops. I commend the journalism moderators who work tirelessly for their students, and we are grateful to JEANC and the folks at Palo Alto High School for offering this valuable event every year.”
“JEANC was thrilled to be able to provide such a fun and inspirational
day for area journalism students, and we loved the fact that it was
made that much better because of the contributions of groups like the
San Francisco Press Club,” said Brian Wilson, JEANC President and Palo Alto High School journalism adviser. “We can’t wait to start planning another one!”
“I was blown away by the number of students that showed up,” said Jim
Kirkland, the club’s president-elect and host of a photography
session. “This program demonstrates how dedicated the next generation is to carrying on the mantle of honest journalism. Trump is in big trouble.”
Ehlers and Kirkland were joined by club board members Edrie
Blackwelder, Dan Brown, Bill Parks, Ed Remitz and Alexis Terrazas as
workshop presenters, critique hosts or judges for JEANC’s Best of the
West student contests.
Also participating was Jessica Lifland, a photography instructor from
City College of San Francisco and colleague of board member Juan
Gonzales who asked her to attend in his stead. Lifland traveled from
San Rafael to host a photo workshop and critique session.