The Mid-Atlantic Chair for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), B.P. Miller, visited the Point Park Chapter of the NPPA on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

Chapter members gathered in the Center for Media Innovation to listen to Miller give a presentation on photojournalism, his personal experience in the field and tips that students should know that they wouldn’t learn in college.

“For me, being a part of the NPPA was kind of like the gold standard for photojournalism,” Miller said. “And I knew if I ever wanted to get anywhere I would have to join the NPPA.”

Miller listed the key reasons for joining the association.

“It gives you this entire network of people who have your back,” Miller said. “They have lawyers who will help you at no extra cost if you get into legal trouble while doing your job. They’ll help you in any way possible.”

Miller initially got involved with the NPPA by becoming a local leader of a branch in Philadelphia towards the beginning of his career, which primarily consisted of setting up meetings and sending emails.

He said he came to Point Park because he believes that it’s important to start early.

“It’s important to reach out to our student chapters because it’s important to reach out to our next generation of photojournalists,” Miller said. “As a national organization, if we’re not reaching out to all of our members, we’re not doing our job.”

Miller ended his presentation by offering to pay for a student to attend the Northern Short Course, a conference and workshop series for photographers and photojournalists to hone their craft in visual storytelling.

Chris Rolinson, an associate professor of photography and photojournalism, was also in attendance. Rolinson highlighted the importance of the club after the presentation.

“It’s the organization that represents visual journalists, visual professionals, still journalists, and television journalists,” Rolinson said. “It allows you to network with people you typically wouldn’t come into contact with more than once or twice in a year.”

Sophomore photojournalism major Nikole Kost is the president of the university’s NPPA chapter. After years of inactivity, she started the Point Park NPPA chapter back up along with several other students in the school of communication.   

“It was something I really wanted to do in college, but during my freshman year our NPPA branch wasn’t active,” Kost said. “Now that I’m an active member and the president, I’m getting more than I expected. It’s something you have to do when you want to do something like this, you’re not going to get it anywhere else.”

Kost is excited about events and fundraising opportunities the NPPA will be putting on later this year.

“We’re having Dave DiCello, Best Local Photographer [according to City Paper] in Pittsburgh, come in and we’re cosponsoring it with The Globe, Kost said. “We’re really excited to see who comes in for that.”

Disclosure: Nikole Kost is a photo editor for the Globe.