My name is Ceillie Simkiss, and I’m a 19-year-old journalism student at Western Carolina University. I currently work for The Western Carolinian as a photographer and a staff writer. I’ve worked there as a photographer for three semesters and this is my second semester as a writer. I mainly work in Arts and Entertainment, given my set of skills and my love of the arts in general.I was recently chosen as one of five staff members from the Western Carolinian to attend the College Media Association’s spring 2013 conference in New York City. It took place between Sunday, March 10 and TuesdayMarch 12 I attended a number of seminars on a variety of topics, got to know my coworkers better (perhaps a little better than I wanted to) and I got to explore one of America’s most famous cities. Who else gets to say that their workplace sent them to New York City? I honestly love my job. (No sarcasm at all, honestly.)

I think that my favorite part of New York City was wandering through Central Park. It was absolutely beautiful, and definitely someplace I would love to hang out if I lived in the area. For one thing, there’s more space to breathe than there was anywhere else that I visited in the city, and there were so many trees, even if they were pretty bare at this time of year. For another, the little alcoves and benches were so lovely, even when they were in otherwise fairly empty areas.

I enjoyed exploring New York City, though I have to say that if I were to go again, I’d stay somewhere that was not on 7th Avenue, four blocks down the street from Times Square. I much prefer a little bit more quiet than what I got during my visit. I would also welcome the opportunity to spend some time in the theaters that line Broadway. I would have loved to have seen any of the shows that were playing in any of the theaters there. Sadly, there was not time (or money) for that, but maybe next time, as I imagine that I will eventually find myself back in the city at some point.

Another good thing about going to New York was that I learned a bunch from the seminars I went to. I went to a few photography ones, but they were mostly stuff I already knew about ‘feature photos’ and such. (For those who don’t know, feature photos are just photos of people that someone is writing an article about, doing what the article is about.) People are my favorite subject to take photos of, so it was fairly common knowledge for me. I did learn a lot in the headline seminar, though. That one was titled “Headless Body in a Topless Bar,” which was a fantastic title. Hopefully I’ll be able to use that to write better headlines in the future, thanks to Claire Regan’s great advice. I was also informed that working WordPress is something that is necessary in our profession, even if I run a completely acceptable blog on Tumblr. And here I am!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, and I’d like to leave you with a question. You can answer in the comments, or on Facebook, or even tweet me! Have you ever been to New York City? If so, what was your favorite part?

Love, Ceillie