On Saturday, February 22nd, Joliet Central competed at the 2025 Journalism SPC Conference held at Plainfield South High School. A total of 10 students from Joliet Central competed; however, only 2 students placed: Alexa Encarnacion Hernandez and Johnny Juarez, both senior Steelmen placed 5th in their respective categories. Alexa Encarnacion Hernandez competed in Headline Writing and Johnny Juarez competed in Photo Story Telling.
While they may not have placed, the following students put in a lot of effort for their respective categories. Ella Ferro, the Arts and Entertainment Editor for the JTC Journal, in a last minute switch competed in Review Writing, where she reviewed a short film provided by the IHSA. Lilith Ventura, the Feature Editor, competed in Features Writing after being part of a press conference to gather information. Holly Salazar-Ramirez, from the Steelmen News Network, the yearbook team, and the JTC Journal, competed in News Recording. Gabriella Reyes, the Junior Photo Advisor, competed in Headline Writing, having to come up with engaging, yet short headlines based on information given by the IHSA. Linda Lazo and Jocelyn Rascon, both from the yearbook, competed in Yearbook Layout: on a double page spread they had to design a full yearbook page in only an hour and a half.
There were a total of 19 events, most were split between two time slots; however, there were five events that were the length of both time slots. The first time slot was called Block A and had the following events; News Writing, Review Writing, Advertising, Newspaper Design, Yearbook Caption Writing, Infographics, and Copy Editing. The second time slot was Block B and contained Feature Writing, Headline Writing, Yearbook Copy Writing, Yearbook Layout: double page spread, Editorial Cartooning, Editorial Writing, and Sports Writing. The double time slot was Block A&B and had Photo Story Telling, Radio News, Yearbook Theme, and Video News. Block A and B separately were each an hour and a half and the combined A&B Block was 3 hours long.