Keynote speakers announced

The JEA/NSPA Spring 2016 National High School Journalism Convention in Los Angeles has announced two media professionals to deliver keynote speeches on Thursday and Friday of the convention.


Jose Antonio Vargas

7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 14

Jose Antonio Vargas-smallJose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and filmmaker whose work centers on the changing American identity. He is the founder of Define American, a nonprofit media and culture organization that seeks to elevate the conversation around immigration and citizenship in America, and he is the founder and editor of #EmergingUS, a digital magazine focusing on race, immigration and identity in a multicultural America.

In 2011, the New York Times Magazine published a groundbreaking essay in which Vargas chronicled his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. A year later, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine worldwide with fellow undocumented immigrants as part of a follow-up cover story he wrote. He then produced and directed “Documented,” a documentary feature film on his undocumented experience. In 2015, MTV aired, as part of its Look Different campaign, “White People,” a television special he produced and directed on what it means to be young and white in contemporary America. @joseiswriting


Amara Aguilar

2 p.m. Friday, April 15

amara_aguilar-keynoteAmara Aguilar is an associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

At USC, she developed and teaches journalism for mobile and emerging platforms, and interactive media design for publishing, among other courses. She also teaches digital journalism in the graduate program.

She collaborated with Annenberg Media faculty and students to develop JEDI (Journalism, Emerging, Digital, Innovation), which embraces innovation and experimentation on emerging platforms.

In 2015, Aguilar was named an Apple Distinguished Educator for her academic leadership focusing on application design, multimedia journalism and innovation in education.

The California Journalism Education Coalition named her its 2014 Journalism Educator of the Year in the two-year college division.