The Hawk Media Club highlights the Year in Review In October 2013, the club organized, presided over and sponsored our state Florida College System Publications Association Conference. The conference featured speakers from the Poynter Institute, The Tampa Bay Times, The Tampa Tribune, and it included tours of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, The Tribune Building and a Ghost Tour of Ybor City. Students were engaged in three days of exciting presentations, media activities and mingled with 185 other students from schools across the state. 

One week after closing our state conference, Dr. Gaspar arranged for all of the student participants to attend the CMA Conference in New Orleans, to gain further professional development.

In November 2013, Dr. Gaspar organized The Hawk Media Club MLK Day of Service Team.

The Hawk Media Club students volunteered 100+ hours from November to February at the Center for Community Development in Tampa, Fla. working with inner-city youth on a chosen project. We attended events, parades, tutored students and developed a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO2E3asFP6I) and Prezi presentation (http://prezi.com/64nzr8hcd8nj/mlk-service-learning-project/). We also participated in an MLK Day of Service Contest. Dr. Gaspar attended all of the events with us, and even attended events on numerous weekends to help us with our project. As a result of volunteerism, we received a $5,000 scholarship grand prize and attended a special luncheon with Ervin Magic Johnson. At the luncheon, Magic congratulated us for our success.

Also in November, the club arranged for a private tour of the Great Ape Sanctuary in Wauchula, Fla. So we could develop a media package to promote the sanctuary (http://youtu.be/HeBI1xqbAHY). The sanctuary houses 45 great apes and is funded entirely through donations. The experience was eye-opening and the opportunity to view the apes provided memories for a lifetime.   http://youtu.be/HeBI1xqbAHY

In January 2014, Dr. Gaspar secured us a special screening and meet and greet with actors, directors and producers at the Sundance Film Festival. We attended events, wrote stories and even took selfies with Zach Braff, who was promoting his Kickstarter funded film, “Wish I was here.”

In March 2014, Dr. Gaspar arranged for students to volunteer and attend Playlist Live in Orlando and The Gasparilla Film Festival in Tampa. Both of these events took place on the same days, and Dr. Gaspar volunteered to shuttle us in our school van to and from Orlando, and then back out to Ybor City for nighttime events. We had the opportunity to interview Playlists top stars and interact with documentary film legends like Sam Childers, the machine gun preacher.

The finale in March was the Hawk Media Club receiving the 2014 CMA Apple Award for the Best Two Page Spread for coverage of protests in Washington, D.C.