The newspaper and yearbook staffs attended the Kettle Moraine Press Association Fall Conference on October 14 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The newspaper staff received an All-KEMPA rating and the yearbook staff earned a first place rating.

“[KEMPA] is a really good learning experience even for people who don’t even want to major in writing. It’s just a really fun experience to walk around the campus,” said junior Erin McBriarty.

It was planned and organized by teachers involved in the whole crew of writers.

“We go there every year. [Since] we belong to the Kettle Moraine Press Association, their fall conference was held this year, so we went this year,” said English and journalism teacher Brenda Smith.

The conference is an opportunity for many students and teachers from close schools around the area to learn more about the different areas of journalism, yearbook, and broadcasting.

“If you have an interest in journalism, writing, yearbook, students in broadcasts, or creative writing, you can attend,” said yearbook and English teacher Ashley Kopecky.

Students who went to this field trip have their reasons on why they went. For example, the sessions taught students how to improve and what to do in order to improve on their work.

“I like [going] because of the sessions. They are really good to take during the beginning of the year because it helps me improve for next year,” McBriarty said.

Not only do the students have their reasons for going, but the teachers go for a purpose as well.

“[I went because] I think that the speakers that [present] during sessions are amazing. They offer good information, and they all either work in or teach journalism, so they have a lot of experiences to share,” Smith said.

For the people who went, students had three sessions to choose from that were at least 45 minutes long. After all the sessions ended, they arrived back at 3:30 pm. Students and teachers experienced the sessions they had most interest in and would not change much about it.

“[I would change] the opportunity to have a couple sessions lead by students. So many students in year book and newspaper have many interesting ideas, so why not have them teach,” Kopecky said.