Nov 27 - Nov 29
Thanksgiving Vacation
All Day
Pine Crest Upper School Student-Journalists Attend CSPA Conference
March 28th 2019
Pine Crest Upper School student-journalists traveled to New York City to attend the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Spring Convention.
Before the conference, students had the opportunity to meet with Pine Crest alumni working in media-related careers in the City, including:
- Lindsay Barron Stewart ’98, Vice President, Brand Strategy, and Mikela Warman ’10, Brand Development Strategist, BuzzFeed
- Jared Browarnik ’12, Co-Founder and Co-CTO, and Brandon Halim ’14, Junior Software Engineer, TheTake.AI
- Grant Gittlin ’04, Chief Experience Officer, Medialink Worldwide
- Leya Kaufman ’07, Digital Sales Director, Hearst Magazines
- Morgan Manella ’12, Platform Editor, The Wall Street Journal
- Mandy Oaklander ’06, Health Editor, TIME
The alumni offered tours of their offices, spoke about their career paths, and answered students’ questions about working in media. Everyone enjoyed reminiscing about their Pine Crest experiences and reflecting upon what makes the School so special.
The alumni joined the students for a pizza dinner. Lauren Winkler DePaola ’97, Maxwell Haddad ’05, Chad Kaplan ’04, Natalie Neusch ’97, and Andrew Pardo ’02 also attended and networked with the students.
The 13 students who attended the CSPA Spring Convention participated in 154 classes throughout the three-day conference, each taking 12 or 13 lessons in that time.
Their workshops covered team strategies to improve coverage; interviewing and writing techniques for newspaper, yearbook and literary magazines; graphic journalism and digital graphic design; and the law behind good reporting. All classes were held at Columbia University.
"Having the opportunity to travel to New York to take classes centered on writing, photography, interviewing, designing and editing, along with visiting alumni who are working in the creative world, made me realize how much I love storytelling,” said Olivia Pettee ’20. “I can see myself as a part of that world.”
