Picture Perfect

Some of the ninth grade newspaper elective class students took a field trip to the “Big Apple” recently. Those students along with a few from the school’s literary magazine club took a bus to New York City March 19 to the 21 of the 2015 school year. While in the city, students had the privilege to sight-see and participate in tourist attractions such as a bus tour, Ellis Island Tour, attending a Broadway play and eating lunch and dinner at popular local places. While in New York, students had the opportunity to stare up at the illuminated city and pass thousands of people on the streets each day. From running through snow-covered streets to seeing street dancers perform in front of a growing audience, everyone on the trip had an incredible time.

The students also took part in a convention for aspiring journalists. The Columbia University holds an annual convention for newspaper, yearbook, and journalism students around the country. Columbia University is an ivy league school and is well known for its academic standards. The campus is also home to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which held it’s 91st annual convention this year. During the convention, students had the opportunity to walk around and attend journalism classes hosted by famous journalists and teachers on Columbia’s school campus. Everything learned at the classes was brought back to Altoona and incorporated into the school’s newspaper and magazine in some way. Members of the Livewire staff learned ways to include videos in their stories and include a social media aspect into their posts, which will help to further improve the newspaper’s content. As the two day long convention came to an end, the CSPA awarded several schools either a gold or silver crown award for the schools publication. This year was the first that the Livewire online newspaper at the junior high took home a Gold Crown, one of the highest awards a publication can receive.

While walking to Madame Tussaud's wax museum, everyone walks into Times Square and takes in a snow-blurred view of 2015's New Year's Eve ball. Since 1907, the ball has been a New Year's Eve tradition to welcome each new year. Photo by Sarah Harmon. — While walking to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, everyone walks into Times Square and takes in a snow-blurred view of 2015’s New Year’s Eve ball. Since 1907, the ball has been a New Year’s Eve tradition to welcome each new year. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

Members of the *Livewire* and literary magazine begin their day with a walk to the subway at 7:30a.m. Students then journeyed a few miles uptown to Columbia University’s campus in the mornings of March 18 and 19. Photo by Sarah Harmon

While walking home from an eventful day in the Big Apple, students stare up at the city's lights and take in the beauty of the city that never sleeps. After a long day of walking everywhere, the students were anticipating returning to the hotel and getting some rest. Photo by Sarah Harmon. — While walking home from an eventful day in the Big Apple, students stare up at the city’s lights and take in the beauty of the city that never sleeps. After a long day of walking everywhere, the students were anticipating returning to the hotel and getting some rest. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

While walking to the next class at Columbia University, students take in the views of the campus overlooking the city. The university is connected by a bridge that leads across the street to the other half of campus. Photo by Sarah Harmon,

Upon visiting the campus, the first thing students see is Columbia’s famous Alma Mater statue. Standing directly in front of Columbia’s library, the statue of the goddess Athena was sculpted in 1903 and installed in the campus in 1904. Since then, the statue has become a symbol of the university. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

While walking to classes, journalists pass the Scholar’s Lion, another sculpture on campus. Presented in 2004, the lion is very well known to students around the country, as it represented Columbia’s mascot. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

While students gather to figure out their sessions, they take in the sight of a fountain found on Low Plaza. The fountains on campus have become symbols of the university, though they are only used unless less a large event is taking place, due to the fact that students used to place soap in the fountains. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

While crossing a bridge to attend an afternoon session, students are greeted with a breathtaking view of 116th street. As students walked to each of their classes on Columbia university, they were able to see a new breathtaking view of the city streets and campus environment. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

After attending sessions at Columbia University, students spend a part of the afternoon dodging cars and civilians while passing through the streets, trying to get to a restaurant. With there being nearly thirteen thousand taxis in New York, students encountered numerous taxi cabs throughout their stay. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

After the second day of sessions at Columbia, students have the opportunity to witness snow in Times Square. Members of the newspaper and literary magazine stood under buildings and shared umbrellas in order to remain dry. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

On the final day in New York, students spend a Saturday on a relaxing ferry ride to Liberty island and Ellis Island. The ferry ride lasted for about twenty minutes, and people were able to see a breathtaking view of the preeminent New York skyline, along with an up-close look at the legendary Statue of Liberty. Crowds formed on the decks of the ferry as tourists eagerly took photos of the world-famous statue and skyline. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

After visiting Chelsea Market, a world-famous attraction in New York City, the students begin the walk back to their hotel to retrieve their bags for the bus ride home. Everyone was able to get one final view of the skyscrapers in the city, and all the breathtaking monuments. Photo by Sarah Harmon.

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