The National Court Reporters Association Convention in Philadelphia was beneficial as both a student and future reporter. There were obvious highlights, including getting test advice from speed champions and seeing the scoreboard room at the Phillies baseball game. However, the entire convention experience was extremely motivating and peppered with lessons along the way.
Listening to speed champions really was the most useful session as student. For better or worse, progressing in school is based on tests. So often we know that we have a speed under out belt but test anxiety gets the better of us. Each speaker had different advice, which I greatly appreciated. I will try it all and leave behind what doesn’t work for me. I am also reading a book that was recommended during the session called The Mental Edge by Kenneth Baum.
One completely unexpected highlight was winning a ticket to attend the Phillies and Cardinals baseball game Saturday evening with the firm owner for a company that captions for a number of major league baseball teams. The captioning reads across the scoreboard anything said by the P.A. announcer. In our group there were three students, the firm owner, and a teacher. Because of the small group, I was really able to get to know everyone. Toward the end of the game, we were able to see the scoreboard room where the captioning feeds in and staff edit the content for the scoreboard such as statistics, photos, and playback video. Of note, the captioner was in Wisconsin.
There are so many other experiences to note. I met a number of teachers and students from the College of Court Reporting. As an online student, making these connections was invaluable. I am even keeping up an email correspondence with one I got to know well; though she lives in New Jersey and I live in Oregon, perhaps we will be life-long steno pen pals. After hearing Margie Wakeman Wells speak at CCR, I took the opportunity to get her book and now read a bit each evening. I can’t go into detail about all the other perks; the CCR pizza party, lunch with my mentor, and learning more about building dictionaries; to name only a few.
The experience was the perfect combination of motivation (you mean I can caption baseball games from home?!) and professional development (you cannot backup your dictionary enough!). Some of the sessions were perfect for me as a student, while others gave me real insight into the day-to-day of working reporters, CART providers and captioners. I could never have afforded a trip like this on my own, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity that CCR made available to me.