Playing my part as a classroom leader
In my student media class at St. Joe, I play a major role in the production of our weekly newscasts, our live coverage of varsity football and basketball games and our live monthly sports talk show webcast from a local restaurant. I help make sure news, feature and sports packages are good and that they are well edited. I complete a formal review of each student-produced newscast every week.
I also try to be aware of events happening on campus. When someone needs to know the score of a sports game or results of a sporting event match, I am the guy to ask.
Last year in sports broadcasting I let everybody know what they should do. I scheduled times for people to be on set for filming news and sports shows. I scheduled when people were supposed to be at the broadcast booth before football and basketball games. I set-up and took-down our live streaming equipment. I drove more than 10 hours in my own car just to live stream and host a St. Joe football game; this includes two hours to Hattiesburg for the Presbyterian Christian School football game and two hours to Natchez for the Natchez Cathedral football game.
This year, I was promoted to sports director for Bruin News Now.
While I do a a lot that is on camera, most of my work is done behind the scenes. Every week I review the sports script and even sometimes have to write it if needed. I also oversee all of our sports stories and our entire sports segment on Bruin News Now.
We webcast all of our home football games this year on YouTube. In all of these broadcast, my team and I produced and hosted a pregame show and postgame analysis. We offered football team star before each game and also updated states during the games. I provided play-by-play and hosted each live stream.
Even though we were unable to webcast any of the away football games, I was at all of the games other than one when we were in Nashville for the Journalism Education association/National Scholastic Press Association convention. When I went to the games, I shot B-Roll and snagged postgame interviews with coaches and players for our BNN sportscast.
As sports director and one of the leaders of this newscast, I feel obligated to attend these sporting events no matter how far away they are and give our newscast and sportscast the upper hand with video and just knowledge of what happened during the game.
I also provided play-by-play for all of the women and boys varsity home basketball games. At these games, we would obtain interviews with coaches to feature in the pre-game show. Like we did with football, we also provided our audience with stats and informational slides throughout the webcast. This year we also added two new cameras on each basketball rim for a more interactive and immersive feeling for this broadcast. I also hosted all of these basketball game live-streams on YouTube live for Bruin Sports Radio which is an award winning radio show.
When I am doing a news or sports package, especially when I am doing it as part of a two-man or three-man team, I take charge and assign roles and oversee others doing there work. When I joined nine other St. Joe journalism students to cover Gov. Tate Reeves State of the State speech in January, I helped gather B-Roll for the main package and film interviews with state legislative leaders.
When I traveled to Philadelphia, Penn., with St. Joe journalism students to attend the Journalism Education Association national high school journalism convention in November 2024, I partnered with two other St. Joe students to do story on the Reading Terminal Market -- a food court in downtown Philly. Even though I was not on camera, I came up with the story idea, wrote the script, shot B-Roll, shot the stand-ups, and edited the story all under a time crunch. This took a lot of leadership to be able to create a story with such a short deadline and getting interviews with people who you have never met.
While in Philadelphia, all 10 St. Joe journalism students worked together to film a weekly newscast on location. I even did a feature story package for the newscast. We filmed it on Thursday, attended a keynote speech that night, edited the entire 15-minute newscast, edited my package and had the entire production on our Bruin News Now YouTube channel Friday morning so students back in Mississippi at our school could watch it.
This past fall I joined 11 other St. Joe journalism students at the JEA/NSPA journalism convention in Nashville. There, I attended sessions to learn more about journalism and also competed in a on-site competition for a news story. My partner Kaitlyn Evans and I did a story about the Gaylord Opryland Resort and the resort's elaborate decorations for the Christmas Season.
In this story we were given a prompt that morning and had until that afternoon to complete our package. I shot B-roll, wrote a script, interviewed multiple strangers, and also edited the entire story in five hours. We also explored the city of Nashville, attended the Museum of African American Music and explored the Gaylord Opryland Resort. This trip was not only a good way to network but also hone your skills in journalism and obtain many more.
This year, I once again was apart of Bruin Talk Live our monthly live webcast from a local restaurant. This year though I am the main host of the show. In the show, we interview students and faculty from our school about things happening at St. Joe. I am the one who gets all of the people we interview and set them up. We usually get a crowd of 30 or more and even give out prizes in a raffle.
This school year I have done countless stories and anchoring for Bruin News Now. I did a story about our sister school St. Richard Catholic School in Jackson taking a look at their new campus. This story meant a lot to me because I am a St. Richard alumnus, attending school there from kindergarten through the sixth grade. There, I interviewed the principal, the school priest, and multiple alumni about the new campus. I wrote the script, filmed B-Roll, interviewed multiple sources, and edited the entire story.
I also wrote, filmed, reported and edited a story about St.Joe's Trunk-or-Treat this year. There I was able to show how St. Joe students interact with our sister schools and serve their community. I interviewed students, teachers, and even a child dressed as a tortilla. This story really showed my personality and was a very fun story to watch and make. That whole newscast was a solo newscast. I wrote the script, anchored by myself, and did the story. The Trunk-Or-Treat was held on a Thursday night and our Newscast comes out on Friday morning. I edited late into the night -- demonstrating how I am not afraid and am able to work on a tight deadline while also putting out my best work.
I also anchored multiple newscasts and sportscasts this year. In those, I have to write a script about what is happening in our school. When we anchor at BNN, we completely write the script and film by ourselves. When I am not anchoring the newscast or doing a story, the work does not end. I get interviews all across campus including teachers and students. I also frequently help edit the newscast which entails sound and video editing and takes hours to do. Mr. Terry Cassreino, our adviser, has shaped me into a journalist who is able to interview people and film effective video. He has shown us how to manage uncomfortable situations and to be able to edit video.
This year I had the pleasure of joining a team of St.Joe Journalism students in shooting a newscast on location at the Mississippi Capitol to cover the legislative session. At the Capitol my job was to film a feature story about the history of our state Capitol. I obtained press credentials to shoot B-Roll in the House Visitors Gallery, the Senate Visitors Gallery and all throughout the Capitol grounds. I interviewed multiple people for my story including the southeastern regional director for the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. This trip to the Capitol really shows how I am able to interview very powerful and important people and be able to stand my ground and ask tough questions.
I also helped two years ago at the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association convention at the University of Southern Mississippi with their newscast. I got B-Roll and interviews of other student journalists. Being able to take charge with kids you have never met is difficult, but I did it. It was a really cool experience to be able to work with college equipment and on a college campus in a real studio.
