The Cascade takes NASH 88: Cultivate

Annual student journalism conference brings campus publications together

February 24, 2026

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Over this past weekend, The Cascade had the privilege of attending the Canadian University Press’s NASH 88: Cultivate, an annual, Canada-wide student journalism conference. Each year, a different university paper is nominated to host, and this year it was held in North Vancouver by Capilano University’s student paper the Capilano Courier.

For three days over Valentine’s weekend, our team slept very little, ate meals on the fly off paper plates with shitty forks, and engrossed ourselves in mentorship from some of Canada’s leading journalists. Each seminar, panel, and roundtable had the team buzzing with chatter as we hustled our way to one seminar after another. During lunches, dinners, galas, and one very late night at The Roxy, we bonded with other editors, other writers, and other designers. We built friendships with people who live across the country (shoutout The Muse, we love you!) and those just a skip over the BC-Alberta border (we adore our sister publication, The Griff!).

Each cohort of budding journalists had their own unique energy, look, and goals, but often the struggles were the same, we are all trying to manage shit we are so wildly underqualified to deal with — yet somehow we still deal, we still put out amazing work, we find ways to support each other, and we all create something amazingly unique to our own campus.

Student journalism may not look like much from the outside, but once you’re in it, you realize what a crazy whirlwind it is. You develop a love for the world of journalism, for truth-telling, and fact-checking, and the value of a narrative rooted in the truth of a specific people in a specific place, at a specific time. This isn’t just about finding facts and putting them on a page, this is about exploring deeper concepts of truth, bias (yup, we all have one), and humanity.

Journalists are the ones that hold those in charge accountable, that uplift voices that are silenced, and expose hidden but important information in a way that makes sense. Student journalists have a love for one another, they have a love for their campus communities, and above all they have a passion that, when crammed into a lecture hall, becomes electric.