Harlem High School’s Journalism and Media studies classes had their first field trip of the year, to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Oct. 16, 2025. Each class had opportunities to earn rewards, attend sessions, eat snacks and they even got to explore the campus.
The University of Whitewater offered various different classes and sessions to help improve future journalists and media studies students, writing and photography skills. Some sessions included how to make an eye-catching yearbook spread, how to execute current trends in the yearbook, and even a tour of their TV broadcasting station!
“They have a variety of different classes, not just about filming, but about techniques and how to build a portfolio regarding your career and just how to be a better filmmaker,” said Gabriel Gonzalez (11).
While both classes were settling down to listen to the keynote speaker, the fire alarm went off, causing all of the students to go outside into the beaming sun. Everybody brushed it off and instead of worrying about the fire trucks arriving, they all were swatting and running from the bees that infested the courtyard.
Madilynn Curry (12) said, “It was really, really, funny because all the people I was in the group with, we all took a photo and it was like ‘When the fire alarm goes off’ and then we saw the smoke and were like ‘its gotta be a bad fire’…they said it was a small fire, like a leak or something.”
After the chaos, they all went back to the room which is where the keynote speaker then gave her speech to all of the students about the importance of journalism and how to create a career out of journalism.
Marinda Hoefer (12) said, “when we got there, we went to the booth to register, and we had a keynote speaker who is a journalist from Wisconsin….she just talked about her experience from the journalism field and how she got into the higher position she is in now.”
After her speech,awards were given to various High School publications, and the Harlem High School 2024 Yearbook, The Meteor, won the First Place Yearbook Award. The students then split up to go to the first session which they found the most interesting. Each class moved into various sessions; some included: fact checking, design trends, candid yearbook photography, and even a tour around the school’s newspaper office.
“The first session that we went to was with our keynote speaker..she was talking about social media and how people can connect with people better through social media,” said Hoefer.
After the first session, both classes met back up in the lunchroom and took an hour break to eat various meals that the University of Whitewater had to offer. After lunch, each class split up to go to their second session.
“My second session was ´how to make an eye-catching template´…It basically taught you, like, how to make a template for your book that makes someone look at it more,” said Curry.
After the second session, both classes reconvened and got on the bus to head back to Harlem High-school. On the trip home they discussed the experiences they had, the techniques they learned and the overall excitement they felt because of the amazing time they had during the field trip.
The KEMPA conference gave many students, including Harlem, the insights and techniques on how to be a good journalist and filmmakers in future careers that might interest graduating seniors.
