Once a year, the University of Oregon School of Journalism invites young journalism and yearbook students from all around the state to participate in The UO Media Day. The day was filled with workshops, Q & As, competitions, and tours. It was an opportunity for students to spend a day at Allen Hall, UO’s media building and get a feel for a college level journalism and media program.

This year, on December 5th, the Voices of Roosevelt team got to attend UO Media Day for the first time. We all learned so much and took in every opportunity handed to us throughout the day. We took workshops on new social media tactics and leadership skills, we had our paper reviewed for feedback, toured the School of Journalism and Communications in the Allen Hall building, and networked with other journalism students from all over Oregon. Media Day served as a boost of journalistic energy for the team and we returned to Roosevelt with new ideas to build into the paper. We are excited to be working toward expanding our social media presence with the tips and tricks from media day and using the feedback on our paper to improve our printed editions in the future. 

While informative, the day served also as team building experience for our staff alongside  a business event where we made many new contacts. Social medias and publications were exchanged, deadline “war stories” were traded, and friends were made. In some ways, journalism can be a competitive trade; but if UO Media Day taught anything, it was that we are all a part of something greater than our own papers, publications, and yearbooks. The Keynote speaker, Heba Kanso, talked about the most important stories she covered and she made the point that the most impactful stories are ones that can bring awareness and help to the subject of the story. Journalism at its core is storytelling and everyone at UO that day had a story to tell and we, as young journalists and reporters have a responsibility to keeps telling those stories and best the advocates for our future,