Ranger Review news editors attended the Rocky Mountain Journalism camp (RMJ) in July at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The students learned from experienced advisers about various topics in the world of journalism. 

This is the 29th camp that RMJ has hosted. The student journalists attending this camp are exposed to new ideas through Keynote presentations and they can use what they learn to benefit their school’s publications. 

RMJ is primarily a yearbook camp; however, last year the directors branched out and established a newspaper and newsmagazine track. This is also the first year that the camp allowed a broadcast journalism track.

Since arriving on July 7, 2019 the Ranger Review News staff has formulated a new logo, established a social media plan and redesigned the website. The staff has also attended several informative classes on modern journalism such as coverage, ethics, leadership, design, online resources and developing social media.

In addition to presentations and classes, there are inventive ideas and activities to help execute what the students learn such as the photo olympics. The photo olympics is a bunch of different activities that students can participate while other students can hone in on their photography skills. The Ranger Review News staff took pictures of various activities, including a shoe throwing contest, cookie eating challenge and pie eating contest. 

The camp is held at Colorado University in Boulder. The students, advisors and teachers all get to stay in the dorm rooms and eat in the dining halls. This is a good experience for students to understand some of the aspects of what college life is like. It can even expose students to what Boulder is like and they can figure out if that would be a place that they could see themselves being future students at in future years. 

Not only were there educational activities, but there were also stress-relieving activities to help the student journalists have fun. The activities included a hypnotist show, Lip-sync battle, a Kona ice truck and volleyball tournament that the Ranger Review, Westwind yearbook and Brighton yearbook placed 3rd in. 

At the end of the camp, there was an awards show that highlighted the best in each category. The categories were best photography, best newsmagazine, best newspaper, best yearbook cover for 2020 and more. The Ranger Review Newspaper won best online newspaper. 

RMJ camp was a great learning experience for the students and furthered their knowledge in marketing, writing and coverage techniques.  The Westwind Yearbook and Ranger Review are looking forward to this school year to apply what they learned to the publications.