Although many immediately think of Disney World, Universal Studios, waterparks and outlet malls upon hearing the word “Orlando,” twenty students may first imagine the subject of broadcast journalism.

Twenty students in the Television Production (TVP) class along with TVP sponsor Jay Salon and guidance counselor Lisa Mallard traveled to Orlando from March 8-12 to participate in the Student Television Network (STN) convention. STN’s annual convention offered contests, break-out sessions and networking opportunities for more than 1,000 students from around the nation.

“It was a really cool experience. It was a lot of fun seeing all these presenters, the professionals, the anchors, and the cameramen. It was really neat to listen to them and get their advice,” junior Jack Danon said.

Senior Gregory Crisler, the president of TVP, agrees with Danon about the overall convention.

“I thought this year was an awesome convention,” he said. “They [STN] had some very informative break-outs and the contests were still the focus of the convention.”

On March 9, the class participated in the Sweet 16 contest, which required the class to produce a broadcast in 16 hours centered around one word with three stories and two public service announcements (PSAs). Palmetto centered its ten-minute broadcast around the word “elevation.”

“It’s like the real-world experience. It’s really stressful, but you learn a lot and [we] worked as a team,” junior Bettina Schumacher said.

Palmetto then participated in a music video contest the following day. The class was given four uncopyrighted songs and chose to create an animated video for the song “Lava Tag” by Koo Koo Kanga Roo.

“I thought it was a good team effort, but we were too involved in it to pay attention to the story,” senior Carina Geraci said. “But, I was still proud of the final product.”

Students were able to attend break-out sessions throughout the convention on various subjects related to broadcast journalism. On March 10, several students competed in the Hurley commercial contest and one student participated in the Laptop Journalist contest, which required students to produce a two-minute story, a print story, and two photographs about a topic in eight hours.

“This year was the best so far as far as teamwork and team direction. We worked as a great team and I think every video we made was phenomenal,” Crisler said.

Following its first place title for the Sweet 16 contest last year, Palmetto won second place for its Hurley commercial and received an Honorable Mention for its music video. Salon partly credits the class’s success with the level of dedication and commitment by the class’s officers.

“Of course, when we started winning at the national level last year, our expectation is [sic] to at least continue that trend or get better. I am so grateful for our two wins this year,” he said. “The TVP class continues to get better and better every year.”

While the class participated in multiple contests and attended several break-out sessions, students enjoyed fun activities interspersed throughout the trip. The students had dinner together almost every night, bonded while relaxing and visited Islands of Adventure.

“Every night after we had some stressful 20-30 minutes to export our videos, we always went out to have a great dinner with some great conversation,” Crisler said.

The Television Production class looks forward to participating in STN’s conventions in the future and continuing to win awards.

“There are many schools who go to this convention and never win anything,” Salon said. “In our short existence at STN, we have managed to win major awards the last three years, and for that, I am grateful.”