MediaFest 2025: The Bailey Casey Lens

Last week, many of the Berry College publications’ students attended MediaFest 2025. MediaFest is a nationwide convention where publications students, from photographers to editor-in-chiefs, can attend workshops on their respective crafts, network and receive awards and recognition for their hard work through professionally judged award categories. 

This is my personal experience with the convention and traveling to DC. Before I get too far, I would like to establish the characters that I was traveling with, and their publication position/s, so that when I reference them, you’ll know who I’m talking about. 

Me, Bailey Casey— Ramifications Literary and Arts Magazine Art Editor, Valkyrie Writer

Abbie King— Ramifications Editor- in-Chief, Valkyrie Food Editor

MediaFest group together at hotel, Photo Courtesy of Christian Kantosky

Carolina Mendoza— Valkyrie Managing Editor

Katelyn Wilburn— Valkyrie STEM  Editor, Campus Carrier newspaper Opinions Editor

Amanda Hartnett— Valkyrie Issues & Impact Editor

Mckenzie Campbell— Campus Carrier Content Creator

Kevin Kleine— fearless and lovingly ready to retire, Publications Advisor

Also note, we were traveling to DC during a government shutdown, so many of the buildings and museums were sadly closed. This is also during the continued deployment of the National Guard in DC from the second Trump administration, so they were continual in the background of our travels. This is the backdrop to our trip.

Wednesday

The previous night, I had slept over at Abbie’s house so her father could drive us both to the airport. We woke up at 3:30 am; my alarm kept going off, so Abbie threw a pillow at my head, but she admitted that her alarm didn’t work, and we were lucky mine did. We left her house at 4 am for the about hour-long drive to the Hartsfield-Jackson airport. 

We get there around 5 am and head for security check-in. Before this trip, many  individuals in my life continued to tell me that the domestic side of the Atlanta airport is horrid and that the international side, which I traveled through on my Creative Writing study abroad trip to Morocco this summer, would have spoiled me. Maybe it was because it was so early in the morning, but I found the domestic side perfectly lovely. Security check was quick, one of the ladies complimented my eyes and my book bag’s patches, and we were on our way. The first objective, as always, was to find our gate.

Airport Breakfast, Photo Courtesy of Bailey Casey

Once Abbie and I confirmed that it existed, we went to find breakfast. We hunted down a Dunkin’, and I ordered a breakfast  croissant sandwich and a strawberry Daydream Refresher (strawberry dragonfruit refresher, oat milk, and cold foam). Throughout the trip, she and I paused to film little segments of a vlog for the Ramifications  YouTube page. As much as the two of us love Valkyrie, and as I am writing this article for Valkyrie, we were shamelessly there for Ramifications. 

Window on flight from Atlanta to DC, Photo Courtesy of Bailey Casey

After breakfast, we chilled at the gate, and the rest of the troop slowly began to join us. Our flight boarded at 8:30, and we were up in the air by 9. This was Katelyn’s first flight ever, and Carolina said she kept saying “Oh my gosh”

under her breath as we ascended. Abbie is not too keen about flying, and she gripped the armrests for dear life. Kevin, Amanda, and I conked out about as soon as we got in the air. I missed my mid-flight snack because of that, but the nap was  appreciated. 

After we landed, we beelined for the Metro to get to our hotel. This was my first time on any public train system, and I was jazzed. The DC Metro was clean, efficient and pleasantly cheap, and when I say the thing I’ll miss most about DC is the Metro, I mean it. 

We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed out for lunch. We decided on ShakeShack, and this would be my first taste of the burger chain. Now, maybe it is that ShakeShack is just as much of a victim of inner-city prices as any other restaurant, but it was definitely overpriced for what it was. It wasn’t bad, but not mind-blowing either. The Oreo Funnel Cake milkshake was good, though. To kill time before our  museum ticket time, we walked to Ford’s Theater to see the outside and the house where Lincoln passed. We popped into a little DC gift shop next door, which we would return to to grab some DC-specific goodies.

MediaFest students at ShakeShack, Photo Courtesy of Kevin Kleine

The only Smithsonian we were able to visit was the United States Holocaust Memorial  Museum. The best summary I could give for the museum is heartbreakingly fantastic. It did a great job in explaining the events and not sugarcoating them. Everything was beautifully composed, the testimonies were still eye-opening, and there were things I learned despite my research and interest in this era of history. The moment that has stuck with me the most was the train car that was used to transport the victims, open for you to walk through. I will always say that museum creation and curation is an art.

Exhibit in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photo Courtesy of Bailey Casey

I bought several items from their shop, including a bracelet that says “Undeniable Truth” and enamel pins of a forget-me-not flower and a white rose that represent  Free Masons, who were persecuted by the Nazis, and a college-aged resistance group, respectively. And there will be a running theme the entire trip, where with every museum visit, I am either one of the last or the last to finish walking through. I come by it honestly; my father is a museum nerd who taught me to be the same.

We pit-stopped at the hotel for a bit before heading out for dinner of Chinese food and conversation with a Campus Carrier alumnus, who now works in DC. Keep an eye out for Katelyn’s Campus Carrier article with the interview!

Lastly, we crashed in our hotel beds.

Thursday

First day of MediaFest convention! We got ready, headed downstairs because the convention was taking place in our hotel’s 3 lower floors, got registered, and headed to our first workshops. The first one I attended was a how-to on fashion photoshoots done by an advisor of a lifestyle magazine who worked as a fashion stylist and fashion publication editor before  teaching. She gave a lot of good planning tips, which I appreciated.

The second session Abbie and I attended together was on how to retain and recruit your staff. Ramifications is a small staff, so we appreciate all the tips we can get.

After those sessions, Abbie, Carolina, Katelyn and I  rode the Metro to the Tyson Corner Center Mall, which contained my holy grail— The American Girl Doll store. First, if you haven’t already, you should read my previous article about the cultural impact of American Girl Doll, and if you couldn’t tell from that article, I have a special interest and an encyclopedic knowledge of this toy brand. On top of that, I have not been able to visit an American Girl store in over a decade because the Atlanta location closed, so I was over the moon. 

Bailey in front of the American Girl Doll store, Photo Courtesy of Katelyn Wilburn

After that escapade, we returned to the hotel, and Abbie and I attended one of our awards sessions. Shout out and congrats to Viking Fusion, who won their own awards, but the Fall 2024 issue of Ramifications won second-best cover for Division III. The award has my name on it, and I genuinely couldn’t be prouder.  

We rested for a moment in our hotel rooms, then the girls and I hit the town. More specifically, the National Mall. We walked around the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial, then Abbie and I branched off and saw the Korean War Memorial. After which, we booked it back to the Metro station because we were worried the restaurant we  all wanted to eat at would close.

MediaFest students at Ella’s Wood Fire Kitchen, Photo Courtesy of Mai Maniom

Thankfully, we got there in time, and it was delicious. It was an Italian restaurant called Ella’s Wood Fire Kitchen. If you are in DC, you need to go; it was the best meal on the trip. I got a sausage pizza, garlic fries, and a tiramisu, and I will dream of each one of them. With dinner eaten, we tucked in for the night.

Friday

This day began with a rather startling start. Because Abbie had decided to join Carolina and the rest of the girls for breakfast at a local café, she was woken up by Carolina’s alarm. I evidently was sleeping on the side where Abbie’s typical alarm is playing, so I got slapped semi-awake until she finally woke up, realizing that I was not, in fact, her morning alarm. She apologized later as we both laughed and said, at least she now knows she is turning her alarm clock off in her sleep. 

After I actually woke up, I got ready and headed down to a session on the national day of writing and how to use it for interaction and publicity for our literary magazine. When we all finished our first sessions, we headed to Planet Word with Kevin, which is a museum about linguistics and the power of language in all its forms. It was a great museum and was really interactive. My favorite part was a poem and short story dispensing machine where Abbie got a short story the size of a CVS receipt. 

Abbie and I rushed back to the hotel for a session called “Cover to Content”, and it was structured like a panel about literary magazines with two advisors. It was interesting to hear the issues or interests of other literary magazines from across the nation, and the two women were very knowledgeable and nice to talk to.

We grabbed a quick snack and headed to the second awards section for the publications that placed overall in their divisions. Ramifications placed first in our division for the best literary magazine of the year! Abbie and I called our Editor-in-Chief from last year, Grace Todd,  and gave her the good news.

Then Carolina, Katelyn, Abbie, and I went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. They had an original Frida Kahlo on display, which was super cool. There were many other interesting and talented artists that I got to learn about for the first time.

Later that night, we all met up with Kevin to take  pictures with all of the Ramifications, Campus Carrier, and Viking Fusion awards. Then we got dinner at an English pub restaurant for our last dinner in DC.

MediaFest students posing with awards, Photo Courtesy of Kevin Kleine

Saturday 

We got all of our suitcases packed and checked at the hotel. Then we headed out for the International Spy Museum. This was a really great museum! It was very interactive; specifically, they gave guests these scan cards to become spies themselves and complete a secret mission as they went through the museum. The exhibits cover a wide historical range from Attila the Hun to Elizabethan England to the Revolutionary War to both World Wars and capped off at 9/11 and cyber terrorism. My favorite section was about George Washington being the first American spymaster, and it was narrated by Christopher Jackson, who played Washington in the musical Hamilton.  

MediaFest students posing outside the International Spy Museum, Photo Courtesy of Kevin Kleine

After the museum, we got lunch grabbed lunch in a mall food court as our last official meal in DC. Then we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags, hopped right back on the Metro to the airport, went through security, and flew home.

Overall, it was a really fun experience, and I’m glad  Abbie and I convinced ourselves to attend on behalf of Ramifications. We are super proud of our staff's accomplishments and awards won, and grateful for the museums we got to see and the people we got to meet. I hope I get to go back soon when everything isn’t shut down.