Before returning from their five-day trip to Los Angeles, California, journalism students Lauren Schumaker, Kira Singer, Abigail Larken and Natalie Ryan received some exciting news.

They were all recognized by the National Scholastic Press Association at the National High School Journalism Convention for pieces created while at the convention in L.A..

Schumaker earned the title of “Superior” by placing first in the category of Commentary Writing, while Singer placed second in the Graphic Design: Logo category, and achieved the title of “Excellent”. Larken and Ryan were both given Honorable Mentions in the categories of Newswriting and Feature Writing.

“Actually, at first I was pretty confused when I found out about it,” Schumaker said. “Then I became really excited, especially after realizing the number of people I beat.”

These students, along with four others and teacher Scott Duncan, not only travelled to L.A. in order to improve their journalism skills, but to simply enjoy the area and have fun.

“I loved L.A.,” Singer said. “Not only the convention, but touring the town and eating the local food was really great. The first speaker we saw at the convention was especially awesome because he was very informative and did well when presenting his category.”

Both Schumaker and Singer are definitely going to take what they learned at the convention and use it in the future. Since Singer is a senior, she is planning on majoring in media and communications at college, and she hopes to implement what she learned at the convention into her work.

But as a junior, Schumaker is still a little unsure.

“I’ve gone back and forth on pursuing a journalism career,” Schumaker said. “The convention certainly helped me to narrow down what type of journalism I would possibly study. It was also a great opportunity to meet new people who have new ideas. Overall, L.A. was awesome.”