By Whitney Burdette

When I signed up for FlipSide at the end of my eighth grade year, I had no idea it would lead to so many opportunities. During my four years on staff, I wrote more than 50 articles, met a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and attended a national conference. Not bad for a high school reporter.

I've always loved to write and had dreams of becoming a novelist. But once I entered middle school and realized that very few novelists actually make it big and earn money, I started looking for other outlets.

That's when I became involved in journalism.  I wanted to continue that through high school and possibly beyond, so when I saw an ad seeking contributors in an issue of the FlipSide magazine, I jumped at the chance.

Two years later, I was given the opportunity to accompany my editor, Amy Robinson, to the Newspaper Association of America Foundation's Youth Editorial Alliance annual conference as a Teen Fellow.

I wrote an essay describing my experience with FlipSide and why I wanted to attend the conference. It was open to teens from newspapers across the country, so I was shocked when I was one of 13 selected.

Amy and I flew to Nashville and stayed in the Union Station Hotel. The whole conference was an incredible experience. I got to meet other teen journalists and see what teen sections across the country were doing.

Part of the conference was sitting in on speakers and workshops. One of the speakers, Tom French, won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as an investigative journalist. He came to the hospitality suite, which was more of a hangout suite for the teens, and talked to us about his work and answered a few questions.

Actually meeting a reporter who had gone so far in his career was really inspirational. He gave us really good advice about taking journalism seriously and having a real passion for it.

I had to quit FlipSide once I began college, but the experiences I had as a high school reporter are still helping me realize my dream of becoming a journalist.

Since I began college fouryears ago, I have served on the editorial board of The Parthenon, Marshall University's student newspaper, in three different positions, as well as reporting for a semester.  I also completed a summer internship with The Charleston Gazette, and I began another internship with the Huntington Herald-Dispatch in September.

FlipSide is definitely more than just a teen section. It is a way for students to gain the experiences they need to realize their dreams of becoming journalists. I think I speak for many semi-professional journalists when I say that more programs like FlipSide are needed.

I'm glad Marina Hendricks had the idea for FlipSide 20 years ago, and I hope it continues for 20 more. Happy birthday, FlipSide!

Whitney Burdette graduated from Riverside High School in 2007. She is currently a reporter at The State Journal.