LEXI WEINGARDT When my journalism teacher announced that the next National Journalism Convention was in L.A. I was kind of disappointed. Obviously L.A. is a super cool, diverse and interesting city, however I grew up in the suburbs of L.A. and I go back quite often so it was nothing new for me.

I wasn’t planning on going but at the last minute I decided I should, if for nothing else than to learn more about journalism. This decision ended up being a great one.

While I was in L.A. I had a lot of fun at places I have been before, such as Santa Monica Pier, but also at places I had never been such as the Grammy Museum and the Santee Alley. This was really cool because sometimes I forget that there are tons of places in L.A. I still haven’t been and on this trip I got to go to a few of these places.

In addition to this, we stayed in an amazing hotel, the Westin Bonaventure. The Westin is a very beautiful and renowned hotel. My friend Claire and I stayed in a room on the 31 floor and the sights of the city from that high up were breathtaking. The hotel also includes several huge ballrooms and conference rooms, a huge workout room, a pool, many shops and restaurants, among other things.

However, by far my favorite part of this trip was the opportunity to learn so much more about journalism and how to be effective as editor-in-chief next year. The second day I was in L.A. I attended a Leadership Seminar in which I learned many skills that are useful in journalism as well as in life.

Some of the most important things I learned it that session were the following: praise people in public, criticize them in private, how to involve everyone on staff, and most importantly how to empower staff members instead of doing everything for them. Yearbook and newspaper is a lot like being on a sports team in that you can’t do everything yourself, you have to rely on your teammates to help you out every now and then.

Although I hadn’t planned to attend the journalism conference in L.A., I am very glad I did. I met a lot of new people, learned amazing new things and went to many new and exciting places.