By Sam Hanley
IHSPA Board President
Greetings & welcome back!
On behalf of the IHSPA Executive Board, I’d like to welcome you back to school for what I’m sure will be an exciting, productive year. We’ve been hard at work this summer on some initiatives and programs in advocacy of scholastic journalism in Indiana. I’d like to fill you in on a few of those:
1. State Standards. Many thanks to IHSPA President-Elect April Moss & DOE Secondary Literacy Specialist Jordan Pridemore for spearheading our efforts to refresh the state standards for journalism, student media & mass media. These changes should benefit all programs and hopefully help create new ones. We look forward to sharing these this fall in preparation for the 2019-2020 school year.
2. Mentoring & Outreach. We continue to focus on expanding the reach of IHSPA to all corners of the state. One way we’re doing this is by reaching out to new advisers in an attempt to connect them with the resources of IHSPA and JEA. The board recently approved a new adviser membership incentive for Fall 2018: we are happy to pay JEA single-year membership fees for up to 10 new IHSPA member advisers. If you know a new adviser who could benefit from connecting with IHSPA & JEA, please contact IHSPA Executive Director Ryan Gunterman at rgunterman@franklincollege.edu ASAP!
3. Fall Convention. Save the date for this fall’s convention, to be held at Franklin College Friday, Oct. 19. We’re excited to welcome Kristina Smekens as the keynote speaker. In addition to a day packed with workshops for advisers and students, we’ll also hold the annual adviser’s meeting. I look forward to seeing everyone there.
If you would like to present at convention, please let us know by filling out this Fall Convention Speaker’s Form before Sept. 1.
Sept. 15 is the deadline for yearbook Harvey Award entries (https://ihspa.net/2018/07/31/2018-harvey-awards/), adviser and student board applications and award nominations for adviser of the year, administrator of the year & friend of scholastic journalism (https://ihspa.net/forms-central/). We would greatly appreciate it if everyone participated in ALL of these areas.
Stay connected to IHSPA by bookmarking ihspa.net, following us on Twitter (@IHSPAnews) and liking us on Facebook (facebook.com/IHSPAnews).
Happy advising!
