This year’s National High School Journalism Convention was held in Nashville, Tennessee, and I had the honor of attending with nine editors.

I had always wanted to visit the southern United States for many reasons. Something I was most excited about was the world-famous “Nashville Hot Fried Chicken.”

On Nov. 12, we arrived in Nashville to attend the convention, which is sponsored by the Journalism Education Association (JEA) and the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and we went to the world-renowned Hattie-B’s Fried Chicken restaurant in downtown Nashville. The fried chicken there was wonderful and it was probably some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. After that, we walked around downtown Nashville, enjoying the nightlife. We walked by multiple famous restaurants and honkytonks, where we heard music coming from any corner of the iconic Broadway Avenue. After waiting for the bus in the cold, we finally got back to the Gaylord Opryland Resort, which was where the conference was held.

The next day, we all went to our pre-convention workshops. I attended the “Law of Student Press” workshop, a seminar held by the Student Press Law Center’s Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand, who taught our four-hour class the basics of the law regarding student press rights.

The workshop was really useful and taught me various things that I can use if I am ever in need of legal assistance as a journalist. I took a lot of notes during the workshop and got a refresher on legal cases such as Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier and Tinker v. Des Moines. These are landmark cases that set the groundwork for the First Amendment rights students have in public schools.

After the session, I took a break to explore the convention hall, which featured various colleges promoting their journalism programs, photo booths and freebies like tote bags, stickers and a lot of candy. After my side quest, we walked to the Opry Mills Mall that was next to the hotel, where we ate at Mission BBQ for dinner. The BBQ there was absolutely delicious. It was so good that I bought some seasoning to take home with me. 

After the BBQ dinner, we went back to the convention center for the opening ceremony and keynote address. We got to listen to how local journalism led Jessica Gallagher and Alissa Zhu of the Baltimore Banner, who received their Pulitzer Prize in 2025 and how Toluse Olorunnipa of The Atlantic received his Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for his book, “His Name is George Floyd”. All of the writers had amazing accomplishments. What stood out to me was that Gallagher and Zhu’s investigative journalism led to an amazing series of articles that highlighted Baltimore’s opioid addiction crisis.

On Friday, we had multiple 45-minute interval breakout sessions, where everyone was running around the convention center trying to get to each session. However, the coolest sessions were the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ones, specifically a session taught by Louisa Avery and Blu Belinky from the American School in London. I really liked how the session gave the attendees an in-depth look into how they incorporate DEI in their press room. After running around the convention center all day, I finally finished the sessions and am now waiting for my DEI certification since I attended four DEI sessions.

The 10 DPMHS Student Media went to each of their competitions that afternoon. This year, I competed in sports writing and had the worst experience. Competing was so stressful. The minute I walked into the room, my heart was beating out of my chest. I was intimidated by everyone and their fancy notebooks and pencils. Meanwhile, I had an old book and a pencil with little to no lead.

However, one particularly noteworthy aspect was the contest speaker Mike Jacobs, who provided us with valuable information for our sports story. He is the general manager of the Nashville Soccer Club and was really nice and funny. It was exciting to hear his journey of becoming a soccer coach.

To end the day, we all went line dancing, where dance instructor Sarah Starc gave a lesson on how to line dance. Personally, I didn’t feel like line dancing, but it was funny to see my classmates attempt to line dance. 

On Saturday, the group went to their breakout sessions, like the previous day. As the day ended, we went to the NSPA award ceremony, where Yearbook Editor Daryna Hriaznova won third place in the Digital Story Of The Year for her Blog about her experience with the war in Ukraine. This was a huge accomplishment for her and we were all stoked to see her succeed. Our adviser Adriana Chavira also received at the advisers’ luncheon on Saturday afternoon the Pioneer Award given to her by NSPA for her contributions to scholastic journalism. We wrapped up the day at the Aquarium Restaurant. While at the restaurant, we celebrated Hriarznova’s success and I bought a stuffed animal shark named “Valentina.”

On the final day of the convention, JEA announced the competition winners. The awards ranged from Honorable Mention to Excellent, with the best award being Superior. DPMHS Student Media members who won awards were Opinion Editor Jasmine Thompson, who placed in the Excellent category in Literary Magazine: Poetry, Yearbook Editor Daryna Hriaznova who won Excellent in the Editorial Cartoon Category, Managing Editor Linus Bossardt, Features Editor Andrew Pulido and Online Editor-In-Chief Tania Lopez were awarded honorable mentions in the categories News Editing/Headline/Current Events, Feature writing and Newswriting, respectively.

After the award ceremony on the morning of Nov. 16, we attempted to go to the Grand Ole Opry, but it was closed, so instead we took one last trip to the Rainforest Cafe, which was located inside the mall. We all ate and shared a final moment before departing for the airport to fly back home to Los Angeles. I was really proud of all of us, despite not winning anything myself. I’m so lucky to have been there and learn how to be a better writer and watch my classmates succeed.