When I got invited along to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association field trip I didn’t have any expectations for the trip, and yet the experience was still able to exceed what I could’ve hoped for. The morning of the trip we were presented with a wide variety of options for which conferences we could attend. Then, schedules in hand, we climbed onto the bus and set off for the city. 

Once we arrived on campus, we had a quick rundown of how the day was going to work, with lunch falling between our first and second session and our bus leaving to return to the school around 2. Then, after taking a quick group photo, we were set free to attend our sessions of choice. In total, we were able to go to three different sessions. I chose Foodie Fundamentals at 10:30, Visual Storytelling at 12:15, and How to Be More Creative at 1:15. 

Foodie Fundamentals was led by Lauren Mack, who taught all of us how to craft the perfect food review. She started the discussion off by giving us all a basic formula that could be followed for any food review and then we group wrote our own review of a restaurant of choice. In between the step-by-step outline and our chaotic review of Chick-fil-A, she also gave some tips and tricks on how to properly photograph the food for your reviews. It’s safe to say that by the end of the session everyone was hungry for lunch. 

After a quick stop at Shake Shack, I made my way to Visual Storytelling. The speaker for this session was Laura Schaub and the main point of what she discussed was how to utilize images to create meaningful and memorable stories. Her session included many different segments of news that we broke down into the most impactful images from each. I learned about the importance of picking images that evoke emotion and the session really drove home how visuals are fundamentally linked to storytelling. However, it did feel a bit formulaic, as we just watched news stories and analyzed their use of images for almost the entirety of the session. 

For the final session of the day, I took a quick walk to How to Be More Creative, led by Sean Kelly. His session was full of humor and a wide variety of ways to gain creativity. There seemed to be an endless list of ways to try and come up with new ideas, ranging from taking power naps to hoping in a warm shower. He was able to balance a discussion of psychologists and philosophers with humorous images and anecdotes. Overall, it was my favorite session of the day. The only fault I had with it was that I had to leave early to catch the bus back to the school. 

On the bus ride back, everyone was able to compare their days and chat about what all the sessions they attended were about. In addition to the sessions I attended were discussions on Yearbook Design, Writing in the Modern Age, and Sports Journalism. The field trip was a good mix between learning and just having a good time, and I would go again in a heartbeat.