By RYLIE LOCKERMAN, Four Points News

On June 13, young journalists dove into intensive coursework in the world of storytelling. For three days, Vandegrift High Schools’ newspaper staff, The Voice, attended the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC) Summer Workshop. Hosted for the first time by Texas State University, this conference has been held annually since 1980.

In preparation for the upcoming school year, ILPC partners with Texas Association of Journalism Educators to operate this camp. At ILPC, a variety of journalistic classes are offered to attendees, and The Voice took the Editorial Leadership class. This course allows for students to gain leadership skills as well as cultivate knowledge in writing for an online newspaper publication. This hands-on learning environment is taught by an experienced adviser. They additionally have the opportunity to learn through their interaction with other school’s staff.

“At the camp we discovered a lot more about what newspaper really was,” incoming sophomore and The Voice Editor in Chief, Audryn Lee said. “And we got a lot better at Journalism, so I’m excited to bring those new ideas back to our staff this year.”

The parent company of ILPC, The University Interscholastic League (UIL), is an organization that provides Journalism contests, among other subjects, to students during the school year. This past year, Lee competed in two of the five Journalism competitions, placing third at State in Feature Writing. More recently, her performance at these UIL competitions earned her a name as one of the 2025 All-State Journalism Staff. The students who received this recognition are noted by UIL as some of the top student journalists in Texas.

“It was pretty nice,” Lee said on competing in the Feature category. “Each time the stories were so different, so it was really fun in a way, because they already had the interviews and everything.”

While the ILPC workshop is intended for editors only, Journalism advisor Jessica Stamp opened the opportunity to all staff members due to all previous editors having graduated. With a brand new staff, five of the 10 incoming writers attended and decided on their editorial positions at the camp.

“Half of the staff are incoming sophomores,” Lee said. “So I’m glad that we’ll have a few years together to hopefully get closer as a staff and make The Voice better over that time.”

The Voice is a student run publication, however, Stamp helps guide the staff and acts as a chaperone at ILPC, there to assist when needed.

“We do discuss their goals for the year,” Stamp said. “And I love to hear their ideas of how they want to push The Voice forward. My job is to facilitate that effort in any way I can.”

At ILPC, there are many programs and people that come together to make it run. ILPC Director, Alyssa Boehringer attended the summer workshop as a student and went on to teach it for 20 years, and is now the head of the workshop.

“My favorite memories are of teaching video production to students on campus and seeing the incredible stories they would come up with,” Boehringer said. “It’s an honor to be the director now and to be able to continue the traditions established by the directors who came before me.”

Apart from the educational aspect, students who attend ILPC stay in the dorms and eat on campus. This allows for a glimpse at the college experience and a good look at how the hosting school runs.

“Having been to many camps at UT, I was excited to get to know Texas State for the first time,” Stamp said. “I feel like I have a much better understanding of what it has to offer students in general as well as journalism students specifically.”

Following the summer workshop, the staff will begin writing when school begins in the Fall, growing their publication with knowledge and experience from ILPC. Heading into the new year, Stamp shares some advice for her new staff.

“Go for it – whatever ‘it’ is they want to do.” Stamp said. “If they have an idea, this is the place to experiment, to try new mediums or story ideas, or subject matters. It’s their ‘paper’ serving their fellow students, so they shouldn’t be afraid to explore what’s important to them.”