Five years ago as I sat in my eighth grade social studies classroom and chose my freshman classes, I decided that I wanted to write for the high school newspaper, The Current Wave. I enrolled in Introduction to Journalism, the prerequisite class, freshman year, and officially became part of the newspaper my sophomore year, when I was the Copy Editor and the only underclassman in a full class of seniors. Subsequently, I became the Editor-in-Chief for both my junior and senior year.

The highlights of my time with The Current Wave have included trips to Boston and New York City to attend journalism conferences. In Nov. 2013, we traveled to Boston for part of the four-day National High School Journalism Convention, which took place at the Sheraton Boston Hotel and the Hynes Convention Center, located in South Boston.

Although I have only attended this event once, it is a semiannual gathering sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association, inviting high school journalists and their advisers from around the country to be inspired and to learn how to inspire.

Among the speakers, who ranged from university professors and journalists to newspaper editors and radio hosts, were Joe Bergantino, Mark Feeney, Bill Greene, Michelle Johnson, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Bob Ryan.

Over the course of the four days, the aforementioned speakers and many others shared their knowledge through learning sessions, breakouts, workshops, and discussion groups; various writing contests, receptions, awards, critiques, and discussions were scheduled throughout the day as well. The average audience for this event is approximately 4,000 individuals.

This trip enabled me to bring ideas and new concepts back to my classroom, where they still inspire the writers on The Current Wave today.

The following two years in November, however, we traveled to Manhattan to attend the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Conference on Columbia University’s Morningside Heights Campus. There was an abundance of seminars brimming with fresh ideas and speakers included Michael Lydon, Chris Wavgaman, Robert Greenman, and Helen F. Smith. From these speakers, I learned about  how to write about pop music, empathy and the key to great storytelling, teenagers’ mental health, page design, and sensory details.

In addition to learning about different aspects of journalism from those people with incredible experience and stories, we were able to explore Columbia’s campus, upper Manhattan, as well as lower Manhattan and the NYU campus.

These field trips exposed us to life beyond high school and Newspaper Production, the course in my fellow journalism students and I are enrolled, has done the same for me. The interview, communication, writing, editing, layout designing, and leadership skills that I have gained from this class surpass all other life skills I have learned from my other academic classes.

I have had the opportunity to meet incredible people on The Current Wave and have bonded with everyone as we spent hours around the whiteboard brainstorming, rushed to meet deadlines, stayed in class through lunch to finish layout, and felt satisfied and accomplished as we distributed each final issue. My role as the Editor-in-Chief has enabled me to work with everyone on the staff and learn something from each of them. They have taught me skills regarding how to write news, sports, opinion, features, and arts and entertainment articles; photography; creativity; and leadership. I have also won awards for my articles through the National Scholastic Press Association and have been recognized for the overall quality of the school newspaper. Above all, however, I am grateful for the experiences with The Current Wave that I have had throughout high school, which have truly opened my eyes to the beauty of journalism.