MINNESOTA HIGH SCHOOL PRESS

Advisers Roundtable
President’s Room 332 | Advisers
Start your day in community with advisers from around the state. Hear about state and national initiatives that support your staffs, and bring your questions for an informal talk about the issues facing advisers.
Kathryn Campbell, MHSPA President

EIC Roundtable: Yearbooks, Specialty, Literary Magazines
Room 307
A big collaborative discussion for student publication leaders: networking, sharing ideas, discussing challenges, etc. Student led, student attended.

Beyond the Featured Image: Building a Visual Story Online
Room 319
Go beyond the featured image and explore how photos can help tell a story from beginning to end. We’ll look at how the story angle can help determine which photo leads, which photos belong within the story, and when a gallery or another visual treatment makes sense. We’ll demonstrate these choices using tools available on SNO Sites, but the concepts can be applied to any online publication.
Vanessa Cranford & Kyle Phillips, SNO Sites

How-To Build A Staff Manual
Room 323 | Advisers
This session will focus on the key components of developing a staff manual for journalism students working on a publication. Establishing clear expectations and guidelines helps students understand their roles, responsibilities and their adviser’s expectations.
Alexis Berkey, Jostens

Scroll Stopping Socials
Room 324
Your school’s social media can be more than announcements, game scores and links to stories. It can be journalism all on its own! In this fast-paced, student-friendly session, we’ll explore how to create social media content that grabs attention, tells meaningful stories and gets your audience to stop scrolling. We’ll look at strong examples, talk about what makes posts work (and what makes them flop), and share practical ideas for photos, captions, graphics, reels, interviews and more. Come ready to steal some ideas and leave with strategies you can use on your publication’s social media right away.
Rachel Steil, Stillwater Area High School

Hot Takes, Cold Facts: The Art of Two-Sided Opinion Writing
Room 325
How do you write about an issue when there isn’t one obvious right answer? As two student journalists from print and online staffs, we’ve spent the past two years as opinions editors developing our publications “Two Sides, One Issue” column, where we tackled the same issue from opposing perspectives. We’ll talk about what we’ve learned about the art of disagreement and why it can make journalism stronger.
Eva Burns & Zahir Hassan, St. Paul Academy and Summit School

Workshop: Build a Scholarship-Worthy JOY Portfolio

Room 326

Calling all seniors! Want a shot at one of the top honors (and scholarships) for high school journalists in Minnesota? The Journalist of the Year portfolio is your chance to showcase your best work, highlight your skills, and earn recognition for the legacy you’re leaving behind. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll start building your portfolio with guidance, get practical tips for organizing and presenting your strongest pieces, and learn how the process can help you set goals for your senior year. Come ready to work—you’ll leave with progress on a portfolio that can open doors for scholarships, awards and future opportunities.

Rachel Chrest, Minnesota JEA State Director

Show Some #*$(@& Character

Mississippi | 321

I know you, Donald, you’re the kind of president who… I know you, Kyler Murray, you’re the kind of quarterback who… I know you Cheryl Reeve, you’re the kind of coach who… All our newspaper, magazine, yearbook and broadcast stories are driven by character(s). Let’s talk about how to find good ones and how to surprise our readers with real characters. And if we have time, we’ll change the world.

Scott Winter, UMN Hubbard School

How to Do the Right Thing in the Age of AI and Fake News: How Journalism Ethics Is Adjusting

Theater | 110

Why is having an agreed-upon set of ethical principles important in journalism, and what are these basic principles? The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics is undergoing its first major revision in more than decade. Here what’s happening and why you need to care. How is the framework being re-evaluated and reimagined now? What recent changes have led to this reconsideration? Time for Q&A.

Jane Kirtley, UMN emerita & Olivia Hicks, The Minnesota Star Tribune

Moderator: Reid Westrem, Minnehaha Academy

Making the Most of Your NSPA and Quill & Scroll Memberships
President’s Room | 332
Unsure what it means to be an NSPA and Quill & Scroll member? Want to take advantage of your membership benefits this year? Join us to hear about all the resources, benefits and extras you get access to as a National Scholastic Press Association or Quill & Scroll member. 
Marta Hill, NSPA & Lori Keekley, Quill & Scroll

EIC Roundtable:Newspapers, Websites, Broadcast
Room 307
A big collaborative discussion for student publication leaders: networking, sharing ideas, discussing challenges, etc. Student led, student attended.
Yasmin Khan, St. Paul Academy and Summit School & Aditi Jha, Edina High School

Let’s Get Social: Brand & Promote Your Media Class Online
Room 319
How can you turn your media class into a story people want to follow? In this session, discover creative ways to build your program’s brand, showcase student work, and highlight what’s happening in your classroom on social media. You’ll learn practical strategies for creating engaging content, planning ahead, and building a realistic, sustainable posting schedule. Whether you’re starting fresh or refreshing your approach, you’ll leave with actionable ideas and a roadmap for getting your media class noticed online.
Helena Sampson, Jostens

Beyond the Basics: Web Story Pages
Room 323
SNO Patrol experts will explain different elements to include in your website’s story page design to grab readers’ attention and break up those long blocks of text. The focus will be on tools available on SNO Sites, but the elements will provide ideas anyone with a news or yearbook website will be able to use.
Vanessa Cranford & Kyle Phillips, SNO Sites

Bro…The Struggle is Real! 
Room 324
Being a student journalist is hard. Being the student leader trying to keep everyone motivated, meet deadlines, solve problems, create great content, and somehow still be friends with your staff? That’s a whole different level of struggle. In this interactive session, we’ll get real about the challenges student editors and leaders face—from teammates who disappear at deadline to awkward conversations, unfinished stories, stress, burnout, and figuring out how to lead without becoming everyone’s boss. You’ll work through real newsroom situations, swap ideas with other student journalists, and learn practical strategies for communication, motivation, accountability, teamwork, and managing the chaos. You’ll leave with tools you can actually use, new ideas to bring back to your staff, and a reminder that you don’t have to have everything figured out to be a great leader.
Rachel Steil, Stillwater Area High School

126 Years. Still Student-Run, Still Growing
Room 325
The Minnesota Daily is 126 years old and still run by students. This session is about what it takes to keep a student newsroom growing rather than just surviving: building revenue that isn’t tied to print, running the newsroom as a nonprofit with a business behind it, and making decisions that outlast the staff who make them. Charlie shares what’s worked at the Daily, what hasn’t, and what transfers to a high school paper.
Charlie Weaver, Sam Oldenburg & The Daily Staff, The Minnesota Daily

Get Involved with PBS News Student Reporting Labs
Room 326
PBS News Student Reporting Labs is a hands-on student journalism training program. Learn about how students can pitch stories for national publication and get support from professional journalists, and how educators can access free lesson plans, tutorials, and training. You’ll also learn how student reporters have been reporting on the issues that matter to them in their communities — and how you can get involved in future projects.
Trina Moore, PBS News Student Reporting Labs

Three Things You Should Know About Threats to the First Amendment Today
Theater | 110
This session will explore some of the current legal threats to freedom of the press and freedom of expression, and describe strategies that student journalists should consider to fight back.

Advisers’ Luncheon
President’s Room 332 | Advisers
SNO Sites and Walsworth welcome all advisers to an informal lunch prior to the awards ceremony.

Creating 500 Newsworthy Ideas Is Easy, Actually
Room 307
Coming up with ideas is hard, and without a good idea there won’t be a good article. This presentation will go over the benefits of a good idea, what makes a good idea, how to take a bad idea and transform it, and how to repeat this process. While this presentation can’t come up with ideas for you, it can teach you a fool-proof process to speed through idea generation while remaining newsworthy.
Tyshow Alexander, Edina High School

Get Your Head in the Game: Sports Photography Tips
Room 325
Small changes can make a big difference in the quality of your sports photography. Sam Oldenburg, a collegiate student media adviser and former newspaper photographer, will offer practical tips for photographing the most common sports that you can use right away. He’ll also offer ideas to make your photographs stand out in the long run.
Sam Oldenburg, The Minnesota Daily

Building an AI Policy for Your Student Newsroom
Room 326
Artificial intelligence has the potential to make and break our journalism. AI tools can help journalists research, brainstorm, copy edit, analyze information and work more efficiently. They can also introduce errors and undermine originality, transparency, ethics, and trust.
Kenzie O’Keefe, ThreeSixty

Dancing With the Stars
Mississippi Room | 321
Journalism offers you a golden ticket to talk to celebrities. How do you make the most of it? Star Tribune pop culture critic Neal Justin, who has chatted with everyone from Miley Cyrus to Donald Trump, shares tips.
Neal Justin, Minnesota Star Tribune

GenZ and Gen Alpha
Theater | 110
Where do (and should?) Gen Z and Gen Alpha get their news, and why does it matter? How has the rise of content creators changed how Gen Z and Gen Alpha consume news and interpret who is and isn’t a journalist? 
Olivia Hicks, Minnesota Star Tribune