About 80 student journalists from Campus Progress' publications network filled the Center for American Progress office this past weekend for a jam-packed three days of training in reporting, writing and new media.

CP holds regular journalism conferences that are open to the public, but this was the first event focused entirely on skills-building and networking. Attendance was open only to writers and editors of CP-sponsored publications.

Five instructors from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism led the training, which included sessions on photography and video skills, feature and news writing, and journalism that changed the world.

The instructors' message was clear: Student journalists need to conduct original reporting, localize their coverage and utilize the web and new media if they want to make a difference on campus and beyond.

Students' feedback from the weekend was extremely positive. "Motivating, inspiring -- I'm ready to make changes to my publication and get cracking! :)" wrote one attendee.

"This was one of the best conferences I've been to," wrote another. "Engaging all the different aspects of journalism really shows how much Campus Progress cares, and that is really inspiring."

For the new media component of the weekend, students divided into video and photography breakout groups. Each breakout had two and a half hours to capture, edit and publish footage to a web site, either an existing one or a blog they created at the summit.

Here are some of the videos students produced:

A life of protest by Teresa Chung, Michelle Kahn and Nirant Gupta

Hunger strike in front of the White House

Adventures in the park

Story of a street by Brett Shollenberger and Joe Schafer

Flying rats by Kirsten Powers and Nimisha Thakore

D.C. transportation by Brett Campbell and Heidi Kerr

Crime in DC by David Mazza

Franklin Park by Maria Renteria and Sayeda Fazel

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: An American tale by Frances Harris and Jenny Housel

The New York Presbyterian Church by Dominique Fong and Rachel Solnick

The people you meet on DC streets by Michael Jarboe and Caroline Peri

And here are some photos taken during the weekend:

By Moiz Khan
By Stephanie Jackson
By Izzy Durham
By Jim Steinberger
By Jack Etheredge
By Violeta Lerma
By Andrew Battista
By Lauren Hashiguchi
By Isaac Mayo
By Joanna Clay
By Elizabeth Deng
By Emily Gerard
By James Wang
By Gavrielle Untracht
By Unknown

Two students, Helga Salinas and Tue Tran, blogged about the conference as well.

Thanks to everyone who attended. We can't wait to make 2010's training summit even better!