The newspaper and yearbook staff went to the TAJE conference in San Antonio on Oct. 18 through 20, and took home sweepstakes for the second year in a row.

The journalism department joined over 800 students and advisors at the convention from schools across Texas.

Students at the convention attended with newspaper adviser Michael Reeves and yearbook leader Deanna Dellana. All students were entered in competitions like photography, writing, or design, and their over all scores contributed to who won sweepstakes and this contributed to the overall win at the convention.

“I felt like winning a second sweepstakes in a row was pretty amazing, we have so many talented journalists at Bowie and it showed in the results,” Dellana said.

Each student that entered in contests on the behalf of their school, had the opportunity to learn something they can improve on to enhance their publication and hopefully win an award to help their school win sweepstakes.

“I won superior in pairs photography, excellence in culture and inspiration, honorable mention in natural world and best in show in photography, it was really exciting and I was really proud of myself, it felt good to win,” senior Julie Faulkner said.

The journalists also attended sessions at the convention that included helpful tips about how to improve photography, to how to improve the functionality of the on-line version of their publication.

“Some of the sessions I went to were really cool and some sessions did things that we don’t normally do and that was cool to see,” senior Jamie Dorsey said.

At the end of the convention each day, journalism students and advisers had free time to explore San Antonio and have fun with their peers without a chaperon or their parents.

“We had a lot of fun, we played red neck life, I lost but it was fun anyway. I bonded hardcore with my room and we had a group chat for everyone in yearbook that went to the convention,” Dorsey said.

Some students got together with their fellow staff members and played games like truth or dare or board games and bonded together in their free time, when they were not at the convention.

“We looked up truth or dare questions and we just played truth about our perfect guy, he has to be at least decent looking and I don’t want to be looking at a gross face,” Dorsey said.

Students got the chance to talk to students from other schools and journalism programs and learn tips and skills from the convention that they can take back to their school to improve their publications in the future.

“I went to a lot of photo sessions and opened up my mind to a lot more ways of editing and taking pictures, which I’m excited about,” sophomore Shelby Kelly said. “I understand why I didn’t win an award because it was only my first year, and I could’ve been more creative, but I’m hoping the sessions will help me improve my skills for next year.”

Teachers and advisors could also send editors and other staff members to specific sessions to get tips on how to fix problems with their publications.

“Some editors went to sessions and brought back things we could use like writing profiles or went to writing workshops,” Dellana said.