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Eleven of us decided to embark on would become the adventure of ACP 2007. After three hours of sleep I was at the Springfield airport at 4:30 in the morning. Bound for Washington, DC and the Associated Collegiate Press conference I stepped on the plane excited for whatever the next five days held. I attended the national conference last year in St. Louis. It was a great learning experience. Because of it I think I was even more anxious for this year’s trip.
Most of the student media from Evangel was represented for this trip. The editors from both The Lance and The Excalibur came to the convention. We were all accompanied by Mrs. Pace-Miller, Excalibur advisor and Miss Booze, Lance advisor. In addition to the convention we did quite a bit of sight-seeing. We were touched by the visit to the Holocaust museum, saw pieces of history at the National Archives and saw many interesting things at various Smithsonian museums. We also became accustomed to working with public transportation and that it is unacceptable to stand on the left side of escalators unless you are walking. Fast.
The convention itself consists of many different things. There is a big exposition that you can to in to and get information on many different companies related to college media. There is a continual job fair in which you can submit your resume to companies from all over the country. Most of them also conduct short interviews with students from the convention. The biggest part of the conference would be the different sessions that are offered throughout the days. The topics of the sessions range from student media to politics from how to handle racy topics on Christian campuses all the way to the latest edition of Photoshop. Every session, in some way or another focuses on student media and how it is handled and utilized on various campuses around the country.
I oversee the yearbook section of crusadermedia.com so I mostly went to sessions regarding yearbook production. One session in particular that I really enjoyed was one that was presented by the yearbook advisor of the University of Oklahoma. She talked a lot about different ways to approach things on campus. She talked about how to make your yearbook unique from previous years and how to get many people into the book. It was interesting and refreshing to hear about new ideas and the different approaches that other people are taking to producing a yearbook.
I went to another session that was about reporting religion and racy subjects in various publications. This session featured the advisor from the yearbook  and newspaper as well as the editor of the newspaper from Azusa Pacific in California. This session was incredibly beneficial and practical to everything done on our own campus. There was great information and new ideas they made available. We learned how to really work with your administration or anyone else who maybe is a little less likely to let you push the envelope on certain subjects. They talked a lot about reporting ‘racy’ information in a tactful way. I really enjoyed this session and felt like I learned a lot from it.
Overall, the trip that I took to Washington, DC was a great one. It was very beneficial to me on many different levels. I learned many new things in relation to student media that will be helpful in my work at Evangel and afterward. The convention along with the company made for a great trip to ACP 2007.
Excalibur receives award
The Excalibur won second place in overall excellence from the Association of Christian Collegiate Media. Staff representatives traveled to Washington, D.C. in October.
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