After departing from Long Island MacArthur Airport on November 10, Ward Melville’s Yearbook Club spent the next few days in Orlando, Florida, where they attended journalism workshops at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention and of course, roamed around Disney World.

Student journalists from all around America gathered in Florida to attend workshops of their choosing and to learn more about student publications. Senior Jamie Sung has had a lot of experience with attending journalism conventions such as these in the past. She had attended the same convention last year in Washington, D.C., as well as the Gettysburg Yearbook Experience workshop this past summer. While preparing for the Orlando trip, she “didn’t really expect to learn anything new at the workshops.” However, once the trip was over, she reflected that “some of the workshops were really interesting and [she] learned a lot of new things.” Since Ward Melville’s Yearbook Club is among the few yearbook groups that is a club rather than a class, the students don’t have as much time to learn about the whole process of creating a yearbook as those with designated yearbook classes do. The workshops serve as a way to somewhat make up for a lot of the loss of time and learning. Jamie said, “No matter what it is you’re doing, there is always something new to learn.”

In addition to learning more about student publications and acquiring new ideas to apply to Ward Melville’s future yearbooks, the students in the Yearbook Club also formed a more tight-knit group. Senior Fangrui Tong said that before the trip, the students in Yearbook knew each other, but weren’t very close. At Disney however, the people who were “extremely quiet” became more social as they got to know each other more. November is a great time to learn more about the people who will be working closely with you for the rest of the school year, especially for such a rigorous undertaking as the completion of a high school yearbook.

For the seniors who attended this trip, these few days caused a whirlwind of emotions to stir. Jamie Sung said that while she was happily overcome by the wonder of Disney, she was also saddened by the realization that “this would be the last trip [she takes] with [her] Yearbook family and that [she’ll] truly miss all of them after [she] graduates.” She also “realized how much [she’s] grown since sophomore year in Yearbook and how grateful [she is] to have such a wonderful group of people who supports [her] and who [she] can proudly call [her] family.”

Congratulations to the following students on their achievements:

Journalism Education Association:
Bella Ayer – Photo Portrait – Excellent
Lauren Berlinghof – Themed Photo – Excellent
Sarah Klecher – Yearbook Sports Photography – Excellent
Michele Moloney – Graphic Design: Infographics – Superior
Luke Paccione – YB Layout: Theme – Superior
Shannon Reilly – Graphic Design: Advertising – Honorable Mention
Rachel Rosenfeld – YB Cover/Endsheets – Honorable Mention
Joseph Spaccarelli – First-Year Photo – Honorable Mention
Jamie Sung – TB Copy/Caption: Student Life – Superior
Fangrui Tong – Graphic Design: Logo – Excellent
Elizabeth Zhao – YB Copy/Caption: Clubs – Honorable Mention

National Scholastic Press Association:
Matthew Fouranis – Environmental Portrait – Second Place
Michele Moloney, Fangrui Tong – Infographic – Fifth Place
Anthony Muscarella, Amanda Spaccarelli – Design of the Year – First Place
Fangrui Tong – Cartooning – Fourth Place
Marina Vostrova – Environmental Portrait – Honorable Mention

Photo Courtesy of Mrs. Weisman