College Media Convention highlights (Extra Credit)

Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending the National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas with some peers from the Washburn Review. It was four solid days of workshops, keynotes, seminars and collaboration between media students and faculty from all across the country. These types of events are awesome, and I love developing professionally by speaking to people who have been in the industry longer than I have.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took a Photoshop workshop, which was three hours of learning about program functions and technique. The following three days consisted of an overwhelming number of mini-sessions in a variety of subjects.

My favorite mini-sessions included "Tight, Bright Writing," "How to Present," "Brand You," and "10 Steps to Be a Leader Everyone Wants to Work For." I took a lot from these sessions and hope to organize my thoughts in order to share the information with other media students.

There were award ceremonies and other activities that took place each night. There were so many options to choose from at the convention that it was often hard to decide what to do. The moment that stuck with me the most was the final keynote, #BlackLivesMatter. The fact that college media students truly have a lot of power made me realize the opportunity we have to shape the world, and that it is our duty to uncover inequality and shed light on the issues that need to be addressed in society.

The rest of the convention was spent looking at booths with media organizations from colleges and companies offering services to school media programs and exploring the city. Yik Yak was there, as a sponsor of the event, and handed out free socks. If I weren't graduating in December, I would most definitely try to go to the next convention. I think joining student media is a valuable time investment and I wish I had started earlier in my Washburn career.