On Thursday, October 17, Millbrook’s Cat Talk newspaper staff, as well as several members of the yearbook staff, visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the annual Journalism Day event hosted by the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Journalism Day is a regional event that welcomes students from high schools across Central Carolina every year for a series of writing- and journalism-based workshops led by journalists, as well as journalism teachers and professors. The Cat Talk staff has attended Journalism Day biennially or triennially for years, and this year’s workshops did not disappoint.

  As the day-long event commenced, Ethan Hyman and Adam Wagner, journalists for Raleigh’s News and Observer, led the opening session by discussing their work covering hurricanes Florence and Matthew in North Carolina. They showed video footage they had captured of the storms and spoke to the importance of planning ahead and communicating well, as well as how to go about covering stories in action.

  Students were then dismissed to their designated workshops, ranging from feature writing to photojournalism to social media. These sessions were among many students’ favorite experiences at this year’s Journalism Day: Senior Summer Anderson said, “My favorite part about Journalism Day was probably the opportunity to attend college-like courses that gave me insight into what it is like to be a real-life journalist and tackle heavy and meaningful topics in writing.” Along with several of her peers from Millbrook, Summer attended the broadcast news production workshop, which seemed to be one of the most well-liked sessions. She commented, “I loved the broadcast journalism workshop because I got to go on a set of a real news studio and see how it really operates during a live recording.” After the third journalism workshop, students were led to a delicious buffet lunch at UNC’s Lenoir Hall. 

  The Cat Talk staff spent the remainder of their time at UNC walking around campus, visiting the student store, and taking pictures. Journalism Day was a great opportunity for Millbrook’s newspaper students to get to know one another more and to bond over their love for writing and passion for journalism. It was definitely a J-Day to remember!