On Friday, October 27th, the OLCHS journalism team, along with Mr. Difilippo, Mr. Frangella, and Mrs. Nickless, went to the annual SSC conference, which was held at Tinley Park High School. This conference allows for many talented journalists and designers to share their work and knowledge with journalism, newspaper, and yearbook students.
The day started out strong with a presentation from two accomplished journalists, Vicky Baftiri and Samah Assad, who work for CBS news. Both shared their story of professional journalists, and encouraged students to push themselves out of their comfort zones in order to achieve their dreams. Small group breakout sessions were then started, where students were able to attend different informational sessions of their choice. From yearbook design representatives from various companies, to IHSA representatives, there were a total of eight talented guest presenters at the event. The small group setting allowed students to attend the sessions that coordinated best with their personal journalism specialty or passion.
For years past, the SSC Conference has been held at Moraine Valley Community College, instead of at a high school. This year, due to the excessive cost of holding the event at Moraine, Tinley Park High School kindly hosted the event. While the setting for speakers was a bit less formal, Tinley Park did a great job at creating separate spaces for guest students and speakers, and for the rest of the Tinley students attending a normal day of school.
All the attending members from the OLCHS journalism team agree that this event made for both an exciting and informative field trip. The bus ride back to Oak Lawn was partially exciting, or perhaps more terrifying, as two very friendly wasps decided to board the bus. For a good ten minutes into the ride, the team was frantically opening windows and attempting to shoo the wasps out. The smarter of the two eventually flew out, but the other refused, and then had to be hunted down and swatted. The mission was ultimately successful, leaving the team to relax the rest of the way back to school.
