Prowler staff attends CSUN Journalism Day
On Nov. 8, Newbury Park High School advanced journalism students, also known as the Panther Prowler staff, competed in various article writing and photography competitions and attended workshops at the J-Day Convention at California State University, Northridge [CSUN]. The competitions included timed, handwritten article writing events, while the workshops taught what journalism looks like beyond high school, sports broadcasting, video journalism and various other categories. Competitions had various formats, such as prompts with supplemental information packets and live interviews.
The Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Prowler, Hannah Shulman, senior, attended the convention in the news competition to gain skills to bring back to the newsroom. “[A skill is] being able to just quickly write something, because that’s what we had to do for our competition. [… While] it’s not good to have things last minute, but it is possible,” Shulman said.
Bruno Shapiro, sophomore and staff writer on the Prowler staff, competed in the news writing category with a first place win. Shapiro’s article centered around the recently passed Prop 50 in California. “I think writing under pressure is a skill that I’ve gotten a lot better at, and that was definitely helpful in the competition,” Shapiro said. Shapiro was a first time competitor and was inspired to attend after hearing about the 2024 convention. “It sounded like a good opportunity to grow my skill set,” Shapiro said.
Caroline Nese, senior and Social Media Manager, has been on Prowler staff for three years and has attended several similar journalism competitions and workshops. Nese noted the positive atmosphere of the event along with the interest of other high school journalists. “It was encouraging to see that there are fellow high schoolers that care about journalism,” Nese said.
The CSUN journalism convention gave NPHS students as well as other student journalists in Southern California the opportunity to improve their writing skills and collaborate. “I feel like the convention really showed me a new perspective on staff as a whole, because we were able to really use our strengths in certain articles,” Shulman said.
