Chicago hosted this year’s JEA/NSPA National Convention for the first time since 2005. The convention ran from Thursday, Nov 1 to Sunday, Nov 4. Six students from Cutlass took the chance to attend the convention.

The JEA/NSPA National Convention was first held in 1923 in Madison Wisconsin. Since then it has expanded and been held in many different states.

This year 6,397 students from across the globe came in attendance. Some of the farthest students came all the way from China and England. This year’s attendance was nine students away from the highest attendance record set in 2014 in Washington D. C.  

The convention included guest speakers, lecturers, and journalism professionals from all media types including newspaper, online, broadcast, yearbook, and magazine. There were also write off competitions and an exhibition hall with over 20 different college representatives.

“The best part of the convention I think is being surrounded by like minded people,” Dawn Cole, a teacher from Madison High School in Texas, said. “Now in an age where media and press are under a constant state of attack, to come together with other journalists reminds us there is power in truth and we should continue to write.”

This was Cole’s third time attending the convention. Cole has came once as a student and twice now as an advisor.

Allie Senn, a freshman at DuPont High School in Kentucky, described the convention as “eye opening to all of the careers and opportunities.”

Senn hopes to work in the journalism field when she is older and found the different career options particularly interesting.

“The keynote speaker was very inspiring,” Palatine High School senior Fidan Malikova said. “I think people who didn’t even know him or his work left his speech very inspired.”

The keynote speaker was White House photographer Pete Souza.