Another successful conference in the books

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2008 WJEA State Conference at Auburn High School on Saturday. The conference was a huge success, as we had more than 350 students and nearly 40 advisers attend.

If you missed out, you can catch up on all of the award winners here. Special congratulations to our major award winners.

STUDENT AWARDS

• Future Journalist of the Year: Taylor Buck, Peninsula HS (Gig Harbor)
• Lu Flannery Outstanding Journalist: Emily Rome, Charles Wright Academy (Tacoma)
• Newspaper Best of Show: JagWire, Emerald Ridge HS (South Hill)
• Newsmagazine Best of Show: The Commoner, Gov. John R. Rogers HS (Puyallup)
• Yearbook Best of Show: The Thunderbolt, Todd Beamer HS (Federal Way)
  

ADVISER AWARDS

• Adviser of the Year: Kay Locey, Gov. John R. Rogers HS (Puyallup)
• Fern Valentine Freedom of Expression Award: Jeff Nusser, Wenatchee HS
• Special Recognition awards: Brian Schraum and Fern Valentine
• Adviser Scholarship awards: Stephanie Keagle, Auburn Mountainview HS (Auburn), and Michelle Hornaday, Edmonds-Woodway HS (Edmonds)

Thanks again to all who participated and attended! And don't forget to mark your calendars for the adviser and student workshops at Central Washington University.

Conference just three days away; presenter lineup finalized

The 2008 WJEA state conference at Auburn High School is now just three days away, and we've finalized the presenter lineup.

If you just can't wait until Saturday to get your presenter program, you can get a sneak peak at this Google spreadsheet. I think it's a tremendous lineup that is going to give all students a wide variety of learning opportunities. This is in addition to the contests in the morning and the keynote by the Seattle P-I's Monica Guzman. Exciting stuff!

Hopefully we'll see you all there.

WJEA state conference deadline just a few days away!

Don't miss out on what is shaping to be one of the very best WJEA state conferences yet.

The event is on March 15 at Auburn High School, and is going to feature write-off competitions, a keynote from Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger Monica Guzman, presentations by advisers and industry professionals that will give you knowledge you can take with you to make your publication immediately better, and an awards ceremony that will celebrate the accomplishments of student journalists around the state.

Still not convinced? Check out some of the presenters we've got lined up for the day:

• Chris Pirello, podcaster extraordinaire from the University of Washington
• Mike Sando, football writer for ESPN.com
• Brian Schraum, instigator of the student press legislation in Washington and recent graduate of Washington State University
• Kathy Schrier, WJEA president
• Julie Simon, Graphics and Design Editor for the Seattle P-I
• David Montesino, Assistant Managing Editor for Visuals at The News Tribune
• Judith Endejan, lawyer for Graham and Dunn speaking on reporter privilege
• Patrick O'Callahan, chief editorial writer for The News Tribune
• Mike McLaughlin, desk editor at the Seattle P-I
  
• Dan Hardebeck, 2007 WJEA adviser of the year from Timberline HS
• Scott Bush, freelance designer
• Students such as Matt Anderson, editor-in-chief of the Puyallup HS Viking Vanguard, and the editorial board of JagWire newsmagazine at Emerald Ridge HS.
  
• And me! (Jeff Nusser, adviser at Wenatchee HS)

And trust me when I tell you more are on the way. What are you waiting for? Download your registration materials here. Or, if you like, you can do it all online now! Check it out at wjea.net.

WJEA state conference now less than four weeks away

The 2008 WJEA state conference featuring keynote speaker Monica Guzman of the Seattle P-I is now less than four weeks away. You can download registration materials here for a great day of competing and learning on March 15 at Auburn High School.

Find more information at wjea.net.

WJEA scholarship deadlines creeping up!

The Washington Journalism Education Association offers a number of scholarships to student journalists and advisers in our state, but deadlines are looming -- applications are due Feb. 15.

Winners for the following awards will be announced at the WJEA State Conference, to be held March 15 at Auburn High School:

• Lu Flannery Outstanding Journalist Award
• Future Journalist of the Year
• Fern Valentine Freedom of Expression Award
• Adviser Scholarship
• Adviser of the Year

P-I's Monica Guzman agrees to keynote WJEA state conference

We at WJEA hope you're getting geared up to attend the annual WJEA State Journalism Conference -- now less than two months away on Saturday, March 15, at Auburn High School -- because we sure are. Today, we secured the conference's keynote speaker: Monica Guzman, online reporter extraordinaire from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Guzman is most well known for her prolific contributions to the P-I's Big Blog, "a rolling digest of the best in news, culture and entertainment." She's a self-described "product of her wired generation" -- that's her Facebook profile picture to the right -- and is fired up about getting to speak to the next generation of journalists. From her bio:

Monica Guzman is the P-I's first online reporter and the main contributor to its new online project, the Big Blog.

Monica joined the P-I in January as a Hearst Newspapers Fellow, covering the culture of technology in a weekly column and a blog, Net Native.

A product of her wired generation, Monica obsesses over her Facebook profile and can't remember what life was like before e-mail. She calls it a good afternoon when she can tinker with her piano and her Ibanez and a good evening when she can get out and enjoy the nightlife. A huge film fan, Monica will often cry at movies people have no business crying in and has been known to get moody if she doesn't see at least one movie in a theater every week. She can't cook, but she's trying.

Monica has worked previously at the Houston Chronicle, the Midland Daily News in Michigan and Foster's Daily Democrat in New Hampshire, covering police and breaking news, higher education and arts and entertainment.

You can watch her on KOMO/4 News at 4:20 p.m. and listen in to KOMO 1000 radio at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays, when she rounds up the news that's got Seattle talking.

Monica holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

Registration forms will be available on wjea.net soon, so be looking for those. In the meantime, we'll be working hard to line up all the session speakers for the conference. We'll pass those along as we get confirmations.

Check out WJEA's annual awards

We'll just go ahead and file this under the "better late than never" category.

WJEA handed out a number of awards at its annual state conference on March 10 at Gov. John R. Rogers HS in Puyallup, and although they've already been listed on wjea.net, it bears repeating the recognition here.

• Leading the way was Future Journalist of the Year Nick Feldman from Wenatchee HS. The editor in chief of The Apple Leaf was awarded $750 and is Washington's entrant into the Journalism Education Association's national journalist of the year competition.
• Peninsula HS's Cassandra Kapp was the winner of the Lu Flannery Outstanding Journalist Award, which also carried a $750 award to be applied to the college or university of her choice.
• Dan Hardebeck, adviser of the Timberline HS newsmagazine The Blazer, was named Adviser of the Year. It is the second time Hardebeck has won the award.
• WJEA President Kathy Schrier won the Fern Valentine Freedom of Expression award for her unbelievable work on behalf of House Bill 1307. Schrier spent countless hours of her own time coordinating and disseminating information for advisers and students seeking to pass the bill. The honor comes with a $500 cash award.
• Advisers Laurie Bender of Kamiakin HS and Gay Buissink of Walla Walla HS each received $750 study grants to attend summer workshops.

Congratulations to all of our winners, and be looking for the Administrator of the Year award application that will be available this spring.

State Conference is right around the corner; more session presenters confirmed

The annual WJEA state conference is now only less than two weeks away, and we continue to assemble a stellar lineup of presenters for sessions at the conferenece. It's still not too late to register for the conference!

In addition to the lineup already reported on this site, we've added some new faces:

• Mike Sando, Seahawks beat reporter for The (Tacoma) News Tribune and award-winning blogger, will be talking about the Seahawks, sports writing, and how blogging has changed the way journalists do their jobs.
• Jim Moore, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's "Go 2 Guy," will be giving tips on what makes him a successful columnist at a major metropolitain daily.
• Mike McLaughlin, former high school and college publications adviser and current desk editor for the Seattle P-I, will help editors and writers alike learn how to write better copy, headlines and captions.
• DeWayne Crust, video productions teacher at Rogers High School, will help students learn about the world of film festivals, direct from his very own classroom at the host school.

You can find the appropriate registration forms to download at wjea.net.

Time is runing out to register for WJEA State Conference on March 10 at Rogers HS

"A lot of young people are not getting news from newspapers. The electron has eliminated the middleman. . . . [But] there can never be a replacement for people who can consolidate news and information into readable form."

- Joseph A. Hays, retired Tribune Co. executive, 2006

The WJEA state journalism conference -- this year titled "Journalism 2.0: The Convergence of Media and Technology" -- is now less than a month away, and if you haven't registered your staff yet, it's time to get on board! The last day you can send off your registration and avoid a $10 late fee is Feb. 15, but if you miss it, don't worry ... there's still room!

Registration materials, which can be downloaded here, will give you the full scoop, but here are some fo the things you have to look forward to by coming to Puyallup on March 10:

• Keynote speaker Mark Briggs, who has served as editor of thenewstribune.com, the flagship Web site for The News Tribune, since 2004.
• Writeoff competitions in nearly 20 categories, with each entry being individually judged by local professional journalists.
• Sessions on a variety of topics, presented by journalism professionals.
• Best of Show competition

Not sold yet? Check out some of the people who are scheduled to present sessions:

• The (Tacoma) News Tribune movie reviewer Soren Anderson, photographer Russ Carmack and sports/outdoors writer Craig Hill
• Student Press Law Center consulting attorney Mike Hiestand
• Design expert Mike Watters of Colby Creative
• Award-winning advisers Logan Aimone (The Apple Leaf and Wa-Wa, Wenatchee HS), Vince DeMiero (The Hawkeye, Mountlake Terrace HS), Susan Fergueson (Cat Tails and Tenas Coma, Mt. Si HS), Dan Hardebeck (The Blazer, Timberline HS), and Jeff Nusser (JagWire, Emerald Ridge HS)
• WJEA President Kathy Schrier
• WSU student journalist and House Bill 1307 architect Brian Schraum
• WJEA Administrator of the Year Brian Lowney (Emerald Ridge HS)
• And more are being added every week!

What are you waiting for? For even more information, visit wjea.net.