SHS teen heading to national conference

SANDPOINT — For the first time in Sandpoint High School’s Cedar Post history, a local student will represent Idaho at the national Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference in June.

SHS junior Emi Lynch was recently selected for the honor, which includes an all-expense paid trip to the conference in Washington, D.C.

“It was really cool,” Lynch said of finding out she had been selected. “And along with the all-expense paid trip, I have a $1,000 scholarship to any college that I choose, so that’s a big bonus.”

The program was created to honor Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, the Freedom Forum and the Newseum, for his long and distinguished career in journalism and his free spirit, according to Lynch’s acceptance letter. The conference will take place at the Newseum, which is dedicated to free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment.

Cedar Post advisor Will Love said he recently became the director of the Idaho Student Journalism Association. It was through that he received an email from the Freedom Forum Institute that they were looking for high school juniors from certain states like Idaho to apply for the program, so he sent it on to all of the Cedar Post juniors.

Lynch said she was in a “spring lull” where she didn’t have much on her plate, so she thought she “might as well give it a try.”

“She went for it and she did a great job on earning this opportunity,” Love said. “Emi has done a great job in her role at the Cedar Post, and I am really excited that our program is going to have somebody who gets to go to this and then come back and practice the stuff that they learned while they were there. I think it is going to be a huge benefit for the students on staff and the newspaper program as a whole.”

In applying for the program, Lynch said she had to write two essays, one about why she wants to pursue a career in journalism, and the other on why she is a “free spirit.” For the latter, she said she focused her essay around her faith. She wasn’t raised on faith, she said, but discovered it on her own over the past few years. She also had to have two letters of recommendation, so she got one from SHS teacher Scott Fitchett and another from Love, she said. She submitted three of her journalism pieces from the Cedar Post as well.

The conference is June 14-20, during which Lynch will attend sessions with media professionals, news executives and prominent “free spirits.” She will also get to visit some of the sites in Washington, D.C. Covering the conference as a journalist for the Cedar Post is also a requirement of the program.

While she has traveled quite a bit around the Pacific Northwest, and has been to Costa Rica, Lynch said she has never been to the East Coast. Therefore, she said, there are two things she is most excited about. The first thing Lynch said she is excited about is to travel and see a new place and culture that she might not otherwise experience. The second thing, she said, is the experience she will gain in her journalism career, as she hopes to be editor-in-chief of the Cedar Post next year. She is currently the social media editor, so Lynch said this will give her some exposure to the different areas of journalism that she may not be as familiar with.

After high school, Lynch said she will likely attend Boise State University, though she has not made a solid decision yet. She plans to major in journalism, though she is also looking at different areas of design, she said.

“I have always been really into writing,” Lynch said. “... It comes easily to me, and it is my go-to favorite subject.”

As far as being the social media editor for the Cedar Post, Lynch said she “loves it.”

“You have to be really good at time management, because social media is a time-sensitive thing, and you have to have an eye for design,” she said. “So those are two things about it I really enjoy.”

Love said while they have had a long history of “awesome” student journalism at the high school, and had kids do a lot of different things, to his knowledge Lynch is the first Sandpoint student ever selected for the program.

“And as far as workshops go for high school students interested in journalism, this is definitely one of the top ones, if not the top one a student can go to,” Love said, adding that the trip is also a huge value monetarily. “But I think what Emi picks up knowledge-wise is going to be just as valuable.”

In addition to working at the Cedar Post, Lynch worked at the Dish at Dover Bay for two years, is a varsity soccer player, is a member of the National Honor Society, has a weighted 4.0 GPA and being born and raised in Sandpoint, enjoys skiing, mountain biking and other outdoor activities.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and find her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.