Journalism students visited the Mizzou Campus for J-Day and earned several awards.

In the early morning hours of March 26, Parkway North High’s newspaper and yearbook staff took an hour and fifty-minute bus ride to Columbia, Missouri to participate in J-Day, a full day of speakers, workshops,  and contests for high school journalism students.

“I chose to attend because I had a lot of fun last year, and I wanted to go back and try things I missed last year,” sophomore Adeline Friedhoff said.

Upon arriving, North High staff members signed up for onsite contests and speaker sessions, while others explored the new setting with a tour of the campus. 

“I was most excited to explore the different classes offered, as well as walking around with my friends and getting food while exploring the campus,” Friedhoff said.

The University of Missouri has the number 1 journalism school in the country and participants in J-Day were able to get a glimpse of college life while learning about different areas of journalism. 

“The environment at Mizzou felt fun and exciting; it was very inspiring to see all the excited other students and the welcoming speakers,” Friedhoff said. 

For lunch, students ate off-campus and had to deal with over a thousand other high school students who were at the conference as well.

“I would tell them [future Mizzou-visiting students] to make sure to have a plan regarding food. Things get full fast,” Friedhoff said. 

Post-contest, students from different high schools within Missouri won awards ranging from All Missouri to Honorable Mention. Seniors William Pooley and Ethan Prior won two awards: a Superior Rating for a Human Interest Feature Video they created and a Superior rating for an Onsite Broadcast Video they created. The yearbook staff also was awarded All-Missourian for their 2024 yearbook. 

“It [the contest] was really surprising since they [older competitors] knew [photojournalism] a lot more than I did, so it was very surprising. I think I got third. It was exciting,” junior Alison Brady said, a previous winner of the onsite competition in the photojournalism category in 2024 and student at North.

The day ended with an award ceremony and bus ride home.

“It was fun. There were a lot of students who were interested in the stuff that we were interested in, so it was a really cool atmosphere,” Brady said.