With only a few day until they leave, the broadcast program prepares for their annual trip to the Student Television Network convention, or STN.

Every spring, a group of students from the broadcasting classes travels out of town for the chance to enter their work in competitions against schools from around the country. Their hopes are to win awards as well as bond as a group. This year, 55 of the program’s students will be going to Anaheim, Calif.

The group leaves March 26 and will be gone for a week of school. While they are there, they plan to start off the week with a day trip to Disneyland.

“I have been looking forward to the trip since it was announced in Georgia that the next STN would be in Anaheim. I am really excited to be going with a new group this year because they all are so much fun. But, I am especially excited to spend the day with my best friend Michelle, who I actually met through broadcast, because it’ll be her first time ever at Disneyland,” Hannah Morrison said.

March 28 is when the convention begins and students will begin to compete in contests. Each will compete either individually or in a small group in various filmmaking categories that involve cooperation behind and in front of the camera.

“I am competing with my partner Emily in a day-of contest called Spot Feature Story. You get a couple of prompts and then you choose one of them that your story will follow and shoot, write, and edit it in about 5 ½ hours. But other groups are doing contests where you will get a prompt for a weather, leading story, breaking news or other news-related topics,” Faith Abercrombie said.

The group travels back March 31, the day before some of the program’s students will attend Junior Prom.

“At STN you really only get three, maybe four hours of sleep every night and during the day you are constantly working and very busy. So after STN, everyone is exhausted, and just wants to sleep. However, for juniors, we need to stick it out for one more night because we have prom. I know I’m going to be exhausted, and I’m not looking forward to being so sleep-deprived. But I know that everyone is going to be so excited for prom that we won’t even think about how tired we are,” Jillian Madden said.

The past two years, the broadcasting program has competed for, and won, Best Daily Taped Show in the nation. Additionally, small groups and individuals have won awards from first place to honorable mention.

“We are hoping to show people the talent we possess and come out knowing we tried our best and got closer as a class. I’m hoping to get closer to some of the people in other broadcast classes and try to prove myself on a national stage,” George Loureiro said.

Sarah Murphy said, “I’ve gone to STN the past two years and it’s been amazing to see the WCTV19 program succeed in our different contests. I competed with a group for a lead story contest and we received second in the nation last year, so with this being my third and final STN, I definitely feel the pressure to do well. My friends and classmates in the WCTV19 program are some of the most talented and hardworking people I know, so I know we have the potential to do really well. Overall, I just really hope that myself and the rest of the program do the best work we can possibly do, because then no matter the outcome, everyone can walk away proud of our work.”