On Nov. 21, a group of journalism students took a trip to Washington D.C. to get a better understanding on how to produce the best content they can and how to become a better journalist.
Senior Kaitlyn Byrd has been a part of journalism for the past four years, and said she was excited to be able to learn about something she loves to do.
“I am excited to travel to Washington D.C. for many reasons,” Byrd said. I’ve been to D.C. before, and it was so cool to actually see some of the things we learn about in class.”
One of the main activities the students are able to participate in at the convention were classes related to writing, design, photography and more.
“Even though this is my last year at Nixa, I can bring what I learn back to the classroom not only to use this year, but also to show others in hopes that the future yearbooks will be so much better than the ones I was a part of,” Byrd said. “It is also good to spend some time with people in other areas of the journalism department.”
Junior Madalyn Tuning has been a part of journalism for the past three years and jumped at the opportunity to be able to go on the trip.
“My family doesn’t go on vacations, so I have gotten the opportunity to travel often,” Tuning said. Since I have a job, I realized I could pay to go on this trip myself, so I did. Last year I attended the convention in Chicago and absolutely loved it. Being with my friends as we learn more about our shared love of journalism was a wonderful experience for me that I will never forget. I’m always excited to learn more about journalism and history so D.C. is the perfect place for me to travel to.”
Although this sounds like all fun and games, it is not all that.
“As we arrive at the airport at five in the morning, we are not just taking a few days off of school to have fun in Washington D.C., even though we will have lots of fun,” Byrd said. While we are on these trips with journalism, we are spending time in sessions learning how to do interviews better, get sharper photos, write more interesting stories, getting new design ideas, or learning how to do voice overs or B-roll better. The goal of the trip is to improve what we do for you, the readers, the students of Nixa. Yes, this is a fun trip and we go because it is fun and gives us a chance to improve everything we do in the class, but ultimately, we go on this trip for you.”
At this conference, Tuning said she learned how to become a better journalist than she already is and how to use it for the future.
“I want to learn how to improve my leadership skills because I plan on being the editor in chief of Wingspan next year,” Tuning said. “I have learned so much already from watching my head editors, but I’m always open to learning different ways of leading. I also would like to improve my writing skills because it is an important part of my position on the Wingspan staff. Design has always been my weak point in journalism — InDesign will be the death of me — so I will most likely take classes on design as well. Being a good leader is so important in the workforce. Your boss will trust you with more responsibilities and possibly promote you to a higher position if they see how well you can handle leading others. Also, learning more about bigger cities and putting yourself in big-city-situations is definitely helpful because, most likely, you will find yourself in a place more populated than Nixa, MO, at least once in the future.”
Tuning also looked forward to exploring the nation’s capital.

“As much as I love journalism, I am most excited to see the attractions of D.C. I have never been to the capital, so I would like to see the monuments and the Smithsonian. I’m interested to see and learn more about the hub of legislature in D.C. Everything is going to be beautiful, and I’ll be with some of my favorite people so it will most certainly be amazing,” Tuning said.
Byrd learned a new take on something she truly loves.
“As Editor-in-Chief, I am supposed to design all of the yearbook pages, so I want to go to a lot of design classes and maybe some leadership ones. I have learned that it doesn’t really matter what classes you end up going to though because you can learn something new from everyone. Every speaker comes from a different area of the country and has a different perspective,” Byrd said. “I have gone to some classes previously just because my friends were going and I did not want to be by myself and I was thoroughly surprised by how much I learned from some of those classes that I might not have picked for myself.”
Tuning is ready to take the information she learned for this convention and use it in her everyday life after she graduates.
“Being a good leader is so important in the workforce. Your boss will trust you with more responsibilities and possibly promote you to a higher position if they see how well you can handle leading others. Also, learning more about bigger cities and putting yourself in big-city-situations is definitely helpful because, most likely, you will find yourself in a place more populated than Nixa, MO at least once in the future,” Tuning said.