From Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, three Pinnacle Yearbook students took a trip to Disney World with the Silver Stars Dance Team for an event called Press Pass Academy. There, Willow Powell, Editor in Chief; Trevi Guest, Associate Editor, and Addie White, Photo Editor, took photos at nationals and learned more about journalism.
Whenever journalism teacher Grace Podjeski found out that they got the opportunity to go with the dance team, she was a little hesistant as a new teacher.
“I have always wanted to take students on a trip, but I was a little nervous to do that so early on in my teaching career. But this one felt like an easy trip because I was only the program only allowed me to take three students, and there was a pretty strict schedule to follow provided by the organization, so there really wasn’t much room for anything to go wrong,” Podjeski said.
Guest was very excited about getting to go once she found out, and was glad that she would get to be part of it.
White was most excited to spend time with the other yearbook students and get to know them more.
“I’m really close with Willow and Trevi, so getting to go on a trip with some of my really good friends was super amazing, and I was excited to get closer to all them,” White said.
It was great for both the yearbook students and the dance team, as it benefited both groups, Podjeski said.
“I was just so excited for the dancers. They work all season to perform at the national level, and we’ve never been able to get those photos. So for them to offer an opportunity to do that, and in addition to getting those photos, [getting] to attend workshops to kind of better and sharpen their skills for journalism,” Podjeski said.
Podjeski was just happy to be there and get to see her students learning and having a good time doing something special.
“I think my favorite part was while the dancers were performing, I was sitting high up in the bleachers, and I could see the yearbook students down on the floor taking pictures. It was just really a special moment to see them get such an awesome opportunity down there on the floor, up closer than we’ve ever been able to get to any performance at that level,” Podjeski said.
Not only did the yearbook students get to go watch the dance team and gain more experience, they also enjoyed the Disney World parks.
“Riding all the Disney rides was so fun. I love trying all the food at the different parks. [At] Magic Kingdom, Podjeski introduced me to cheeseburger wontons that were amazing. Also, going to Hollywood Studios, and [getting] Podjeski to ride two rides that she was really afraid of was so much fun, too,” White said.
Guest was able to get a real look into what the journalism industry was like, and got to learn a lot about what all goes into it.
“I think it made me realize it’s a lot bigger than just running a newspaper and doing yearbook and radio. There’s a lot more things that go into it than just the actual journalism aspect, so I think I can apply a lot of the stuff that I learned in the future, like [for] jobs,” Guest said.
The workshop was able to help White as a leader in the journalism program, and help her improve for the rest of the group.
“I think because I’m a Photo Editor, [the workshop helped with] figuring out ‘hey, you’re gonna do this,’ being more organized with how I assign photos, or minding them and stuff like that. [It also helped with] teaching everyone more basics of photography. I felt like it really helped, because we as a staff sometimes struggle with that, including myself,” White said.
Getting to go to the Press Pass Academy let all of the students and Podjeski grow closer together and create a deeper bond with the special experience that the four of them got to share.
“I really got to know those three students more. They’re three editors, so I already knew them pretty well beforehand, but it was just a really special trip, and I got to know them more. I got to see more of their passion for journalism unfold, so that was just really special,” Podjeski said.
