On Saturday, October 17, the Florida Scholastic Press Association (FSPA) held its 43rd Annual South Florida Journalism Day at Florida International University. Every year the association has a different theme and this year’s theme was Star Wars. “The Media Awakens” included several seminars with titles that were a play on words to the movie.
“Help Me iPhone, You’re My Only Hope” was one of the creative classes featured. Yearbook representatives spoke about how to advance a publication with a smart phone. Other classes taught student journalists about how to become a marketing “yoda” to sell yearbooks, or how to “bring the galaxy home” and write stories about the local community.
Several Harbinger reporters from Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC) attended Journalism Day. Staff writers, Carolina Espinal and Daylin Delgado, wrote about the Keynote Speaker, Jim DeFede and a struggle he faced not too long ago as a journalist. “Journalists Awaken FSPA District 6” was the article written by Espinal and “The Media Awakened Jim DeFede” by Delgado.
Additionally, The Harbinger once again won multiple awards from the Florida Scholastic Press Association. Vivian Bermudez and Maria Vasquez, last year’s layout-editors for The Harbinger, received the Fall Digital Contest’s first place award for their In-Depth Package of the newspaper. Also, Espinal entered an On-The-Spot writing contest for news in which she placed third.