Surrounded by student journalists from across Texas, 18 newspaper and yearbook staffers attended the Texas Association of Journalism Educators’ annual Fall Fiesta convention in San Antonio from Oct.18 to 20.

Staffers started off the weekend by hearing from senior investigative reporter Lise Olsen, who has spent over two decades specializing in crime and corruption reporting.

“It’s cool what she does with her job,” junior Katie Mathews said. “That would give me so much trauma. She’s really brave for that and I really appreciated her taking the time to come out to talk to us.”

Following Olsen’s keynote, staffers competed in events ranging from design and writing contests to a team photo scavenger hunt.

“There’s a lot of different types of journalism,” Mathews said. “There’s broadcasting, writing, photography, literally everything. Not everybody wants to be a broadcaster and not everybody wants to be a photographer.”

Sophomore Brinley Francis competed in the scavenger hunt event, where she photographed specific areas required by her list near the convention center.

“It opened my eyes to all the different people and things I should be looking at,” Francis said. “It’s not as broad as the River Walk or the Alamo. There’s all these other proportions that come into making San Antonio what it is now. I found some cool things that you wouldn’t know unless you go out and see them for yourself.”

The next day, staffers attended classes on topics such as good interview techniques and the importance of fresh stories from journalists like David Knight and Scott Winter.

“Hearing people who have been in journalism for multiple years teach gives you a new insight,” senior Faye Zayed said. “The social justice class really opened up my eyes and reemphasized my love for journalism. I was tearing up because I realized how much I love journalism and how proud I am to be continuing it in college.”

Zayed also presented her own class on student press rights for the second year, alongside the New Voices Texas team.

“It feels nice to have the support of your staff and see them in the front row,” Zayed said. “This year went a lot better because I know more stuff now and I’ve learned so much in the past year about how to speak up and how to present.”

The awards and closing ceremony was held on Monday at the Lila Cockrell Theatre, where keynote speaker Pat Doney spoke about insights from his career in sports broadcasting.

“I really look up to [Doney] and want to be who he has become,” Francis said. “I’m going to his camp over the summer to better my broadcasting skills. Seeing what my future could be and knowing I could have that job and be the one interviewing players is really inspiring.”

Following the keynote, awards were presented. The print newspaper placed second in Best of Show, the yearbook placed third and Rouse was ranked fifth in sweepstakes overall.

“All of these other big Austin schools win every single year,” Zayed said. “I thought that there was no chance we would get second so I was shocked. I was so happy and I am still so happy. It was honestly the best way to end off Fall Fiesta.”

To close the weekend, staffers visited the San Antonio Zoo with students from Glenn and Leander High School.

“It’s important to stay connected with other student journalists and not just your publication because being a student journalist is what connects all of us,” Zayed said. “We all have the same struggles, we all have the same goals and accomplishments. We all love journalism.”