John Brown University will host the Arkansas College Media Association Conference this Friday, where many JBU students are competing for awards in a variety of different categories.
Becky Pohle, the administrative assistant for both the Communication and the Music Departments, and has also been very active in preparing submissions for the conference.
“We have been reserving the rooms, making sure the food is taken care of, and maintaining communication with all of the different universities,” Pohle said.
Pohle also emphasized how beneficial the Simmons Great Hall has been in the process, because it provides a central location that has the capacity to house all of the different conference sessions.
Along with the different conference sessions, there are a variety of contests that students have submitted their work to. According to Pohle, these categories are newspaper, yearbook, magazine, and also online publications.
Klara Johannesen is a photography major who has photos that are entered in the ACMA conference.
“I got my first camera when I was 12, and I would always have it in my hands! I would shoot at school all the time, but I had to delete all the pictures because I only had one memory card. I didn’t know at that time that images could be uploaded to the computer and saved. I just knew it was full so I deleted it all and kept shooting. At that time, I shot because I wanted to shoot and not to see the picture at the end,” said Johannesen.
Johannesen said her interest in photography stems from the affect it has on people.
“Photography makes people talk a lot. If you see an old picture of yourself, you immediately have stuff to say about what you are wearing, what you were doing, your facial expression, and where you were in life at that time. A statement definitely says more whenever it has a picture along with it,” said Johannesen.
After JBU, Johannesen wants to take the skills she has learned from being the photo editor for the Threefold and apply to a career as a photojournalist.
Communication major Tarah Thomas is also competing at the conference. She is the editor of the sports pages for the Threefold, and is also a JBU cheerleader.
“I chose sports mostly because I am an athlete, and I enjoy all things sports. I could connect and understand the content better. Also, sports is a lot of fun and a great way to bring the JBU community together, so I wanted to showcase that in the newspaper to hopefully get more people going to the games and events,” said Thomas.
Like Johannesan, Thomas plans on continuing her career in the realm of media.
“One day, I would hope to be an editor for some magazine, maybe even a creative director. Who knows what the future will hold, but I do know that the newspaper has given me some valuable skills that I could take to any job or career,” Johannesan said.