Everyone has a favorite award show: the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys…the Florida Scholastic Press Association Spring Convention.
For media and journalism students, FSPA was just as eagerly anticipated as any of these highly publicized events. April 3-5 brought a huge wave of excitement to the programs, as they either attended award ceremonies in person or anticipated the release of the results online. By the end, Hagerty students held 53 “All-Florida”s (the highest category of recognition), eight “Best of the Best” awards (distinctions for the singular best entry in each category) and four Sunshine Standout awards—one for each publication.
“When students go to the convention, usually they really don’t know how many people are looking at what they do,” publications advisor Brit Taylor said. “They find out that people across the state—even nationwide—are checking out their stuff. It’s pretty cool that what we do is a bit of a model for other schools.”
Before the convention, students in newspaper, yearbook and photojournalism classes, as well as members of the literary magazine, entered the projects they had created throughout the year in the Spring Digital Contest. FSPA guidelines provided numerous categories to which students could submit their preexisting works, and several Quick Turn prompts, which required students to create a new piece over five days.
Over the course of the three-day convention, students entered brief competitions centered around everything from writing to design and attended sessions led by field experts and student leaders. Newspaper Editor-in-chief Kailey Calvo and Staff Reporter Isabella Ross taught one of these sessions, demonstrating Hagerty’s unique story-writing process.
“Everyone being super engaged in the session was really, really nice,” Calvo said. “I really like interacting with other people. That’s my favorite part about journalism…FSPA is the perfect place to do that and to build more connections with other staffs.”
Calvo earned recognition as the Student Journalist of the Year, continuing the standard of excellence set by former Editor-in-chief Nadia Knoblauch in 2024, and received a “Best of the Best” for a Multimedia Feature Story she co-wrote.
“[SJOY] was something that Mr. Taylor and I discussed over the summer, and it was something that I knew I was going to take on [in] my role [as] editor-in-chief,” Calvo said. “It was something that I felt I really wanted to commit myself to.”
In the convention contests, Print Editor Josephine Lim won a first place award for news writing, and Ross took second place for feature writing.
Yearbook celebrated successes of their own, receiving numerous “Best of the Best”s from their Spring Digital submissions. While the yearbook staff frequently attends conventions and camps, FSPA provided them with the unique opportunity to work alongside other programs.
“It was a nice convention,” yearbook Editor-in-chief Lacee Ginga said. “I really liked FSPA. It was fun to be with my friends and go to the dance at the end, and the lip sync battle.”
Though the convention takes place annually, this year featured a new addition for Hagerty attendees. With this year’s formation of the Academy of Media and Communication (an umbrella organization for newspaper, yearbook, photojournalism, digital design and TV production), media classes have had more avenues to support each other in media production and events.
This year, for the first time, TV production students partook in the convention, joining broadcast teams from schools across the state.
“We’ve done a couple different trips with the broadcast [program] since we’re now part of the Academy of Media and Communication,” Taylor said. “Three broadcast journalism people came with us as part of Woof TV, and [it] was cool doing the convention with them. All [of us] hanging together was definitely something new this year that we hope to continue.”
Senior Eastin Mathies, senior Antonio Pizza and junior Jahmari Abbott competed in the Director’s Challenge contest at the convention, receiving an Honorable Mention for their submission.
“TV production is kind of shrinking, so it’s really nice to join in with another group,” Mathies said. “I love all the people from journalism that we’ve joined in with. It’s good to have different talents and perspectives as well, when you’re working. It’s great to have people you can call on.”
This year also saw an overall increase in the amount of students submitting stories and participating in aspects of the convention.
“There were people who [were in] their first year on staff who were able to come so that they could get a taste of if they wanted to return to staff next year and make sure that they could continue [our] pattern of excellence,” Calvo said.
Despite the activity and visibility that came with the creation of the Academy, FSPA provides journalism students with a chance to celebrate their accomplishments in a way they do not always get to.
“I don’t think people know what a high quality product we [create],” Taylor said. “People would be happy if the yearbook were just all pictures and no words.”
With budget cuts and organizational changes being made to the educational system at large, Taylor hopes the successes can continue, but these programs are bound to feel some effects.
“With schedule changes and staffing changes, I hope that we get to keep going in the same way we are this year,” Taylor said. “I see some progress as far as the three teachers in their programs working together and doing projects that incorporate each other’s students, so I just hope that that continues.”
