High school and college journalists from the Los Angeles area participated in the college’s first annual Journalism Day, hosted by the Language Arts department and the journalism program, last Thursday. Students sat through career-training and networking workshops led by professionals in the field.

Kelly Corrigan,  an education reporter for the Glendale News Press, spoke to a classroom full of students about writing investigative school stories and discussed potential ideas.

Nick Greitzer, UCLA’s Bruin Mobile developer, informed them about the process of building mobile apps and providing content that will build an online audience. Greitzer also developed the app for El Vaquero, now available in the app store under “El Vaq.”

During lunch hour, students gathered in Kreider Hall for a panel discussion on “The Future of News.” USC digital media professor Robert Hernandez moderated the panel and introduced three other web journalists.

Adolfo Hernandez from BuzzFeed News, P. Kim Bui, the deputy managing editor at Reported.ly and GCC alumnus, Tim Traeger of 411Whittier each shared stories about their experiences in the industry and the struggle to find jobs.

They encouraged aspiring journalists to take on internships and apply for scholarships to help advance their careers.

While journalists fear the day print publications might fully succumb to the digital age, Traeger reminded students that “journalism is something that is really, really important…because you have got to give people relevant information. I don’t care what platform — everyone is going to need good quality writers and editors.”