Features editor attends Newspaper2 summer workshop

Nallely Delara

Retired Long Beach polie officer and now part time administration of justice professor at LBCC lectures a group of young journalist at the Newspaper2 workshop
Sarah Lu
Retired Long Beach police officer Grant Boyer and now part-time administration of justice professor at Long Beach City College holds a press conference a group of high school journalist at the Newspaper2 summer workshop earlier the month.

For four days, I got a small break from the San Fernando Valley heat and attended Newspapers2, an intense journalism workshop from Aug. 1 to 4.

The workshop started on a Monday on the Liberal Arts campus at Long Beach City College (LBCC). On that first day, we got straight to work. We started the day off by having a breakfast snack as director of the program, Konnie Krislock, gave us an introduction. There were five different sessions: one for writers, broadcast students, editors-in-chief, photographers and page designers. I chose to take the writing workshop.

The writing class was taught by LBCC professor and newspaper adviser Pat McKean. The first day we went over Associated Press Style and the structure of a story. Then we had a one-hour long press conference and after that almost two hours to write a news story in class.

The following two days consisted of the same, a small lecture in class followed by a press conference, except this time we had to write the stories for homework. I actually stayed up until 1 a.m both days working on my stories. As unpleasant as this sounds, I actually enjoyed it because I chose to go to my fullest potential and write the best stories I possibly could. This paid off with compliments on my writing. I also got feedback and got errors pointed out I never even realized I made.

The last day, was definitely my favorite day. Our assignment that day was to team up with an editor-in-chief, a photographer, another writer and someone in the broadcast class. We had to find a feature story anywhere on campus and write a story, produce a video and take pictures. We had all the creative freedom we wanted for the assignment. My team and I decided to go to where the gyms and fields were, to take the easy route and write a feature story on a student athlete. We ended up looking for a man by the name of John Smith, since we were told he was a person who knew a lot.

As we found him in his office, he told us he decided to give us an interview anyways. The story my team and I wrote on this man is definitely one of the best stories I have ever written. This story will be published on LBCC newspaper publication this fall.

I stayed in a hotel near campus with a group of girls from San Diego and their adviser. Each night, we went out for dinner at popular restaurants in Long Beach and had food from Mac and Cheetos, donuts filled with ice cream and dessert at Snow Monsters.  This workshop was very intense, but I also had a lot fun.

Nallely DeLara, now in her second year on the newspaper staff, received the Jolene Combs Memorial Scholarship from the Southern California Journalism Education Association, which allowed her to attend Newspapers2.