On April 5, members of The Echo staff attended the Baruch College High School Journalism Conference, where school newspapers from all across the city were recognized for their talent in journalism and learned from the expertise of professionals. In attendance and competition with The Echo were schools with longstanding publications like Townsend Harris (The Classic) and Stuyvesant (The Stuyvesant Spectator), as well as ambitious newcomers like the Queens School of Inquiry (QSI Inquirer).

The day began with workshops led by journalists and editors at the top of their field; sessions covered topics from “Avoiding Legal and Ethical Lapses” to “The Essentials of Photojournalism.” It was a wonderful opportunity to hear from people who were doing what we do at The Echo on a much larger scale; we brought back some amazing notes and lessons to improve future issues. Writer and editor Oliver Grover said, “It was interesting to gain perspectives from people who have been in the industry for years.”

We also had the opportunity to speak with the leaders of other newspapers and learn a little bit about how they run their papers. As a new newspaper, it was great to receive some input and advice from seasoned high school journalists. An interview with some of these NYC student newspapers is coming soon, so keep an eye out for that! 

The last part of the conference was The Annual Newsies Awards Ceremony, where Orlena Fella, Zoe Otto, Md Islam, and Raymon Morillo won 1st Place for Best Feature Article in a New Newspaper. They were awarded for their article from Issue 4: “Campus Chronicles: A Conversation with CCNY’s President, Dr. Boudreau.” We are so proud of the hard work they put into this insightful article and are thrilled that this well-written piece received the recognition it deserves. When was the last time you read it? Now is a great time to take another look — all past issues and articles from The Echo can be found on our web page.

The group had a great trip and our journalists have come back inspired and ready to keep producing amazing work and improving The Echo! Congrats again to our winners 🙂

The Echo staff and Ms. Hesseltine at the Newsies.