Summer's Spotlight: SBCSC student journalists win 2023 School of the Year

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind.-- We kickoff of Spotlight with a win for South Bend City School Corporation high schools!

Out of every broadcasting station for high schools across the Hoosier state, and for the first time in school history, the SBS-TV Team won Broadcasting School of the Year.

The Broadcast Media and Film Program with the SBCSC's Career and Technical Education Department, also won 10 other awards at the 2023 Indiana Association of School Broadcasters Award Show.

Morning anchor, Summer Horan, spoke with some of the seniors on their win and favorite memories from the course.

Senior's favorite class memories:

“My favorite part from this class is the time we created a reality show. It was the most it was just so fun.”

members probably also the reality show it was an experience. Would you say experience is an experience,

"My favorite memory would have to be a tie between the reality show or package that I did on ArtBeat. That was definitely a lot of fun.

I think my favorite moment is when maybe a went out to the Ren Faire and we did a package there."

"I have to say, working on the two newscasts that we entered for the ISP competition. It was very, very stressful and a lot of long, a lot of hard-working hours. But the payoff of all that work was really really cool. It's very gratifying."

Even teacher, Tim Richardson, spoke to the students work saying, "So fair, remember a moment I honestly so much is going on. I don't have one specific one. It's just that seeing all these all the projects come together and you see all the craziness and all the chaos and the wrangling and all that and then the habit turn into a finished product and especially this year turned into an award-winning product. It's just really amazing. And it's really cool to see the kids see that they can accomplish something.”

Live conversation with the SBS-TV/WETL team:

1. What does this achievement mean to you seniors?

"It means a lot. And it's, it's really gratifying to see all of our hard work pay off, and something that we've been working on for years. So, it's definitely good to be here."

"That just means lots less art. I heard Greg is just like, we we never expected that. Like when we went in there and they were cutting down, you know who was going to be the top school, we were literally Fingers crossed. Yeah. And we didn't think we're gonna get it. But when this caught our name, it was just we literally screamed as loud as we could like, I don't know, it's just me, it's so much because I don't, that's never happened before. And it's happened to us, just means a lot because we work hard for that."

2. What can students expect when joining this class?

"We have students from we are from all four of the area high schools. And so, it's a great opportunity for them to come spend half a day with us. So, first year, students will come for mornings, and second year students come in the afternoon. So, it gives them a lot of hands-on experience, they can just sign up, they can talk to their counselors and see if they qualify, they get dual college credits, they get opportunities to work out in the community covering stories like you're doing right now," says broadcasting teacher, Tim Richardson.

3. Did any of you expect to have the resources that are available to you here, during your high school experience?

"I never thought about it until my counselor told me my sophomore year that I should join it because I told her that I like doing film taking photos. And when she told me about it, I saw like the promotion for the class, I was like, I need to be there because like I saw everything that we do. And I'm so glad that I joined."

4. Would you recommend future students take part in a class like this? If so, why?

"This is a great head start for if you want to do anything media, broadcast radio, this is a great headset to let you know the type of things you need to use, how to be on radio and not get nervous. So, it's just, there's so many things here that you can take advantage of when you want to go to college, you'll be ahead of the game."

5. What does an average class day look like?

"So, it depends on what we're doing. Because sometimes when we have a show, we normally come into class and then the anchors, like they change into the clothes, and they come here they sit down and then we have set the cameras then we go in that room. And then we monitor the cameras. And then we edit, Matt normally does the editing for the shows. But if we're doing packages, sometimes we'd have to like leave school to go somewhere to the place where we're covering the story on. Or sometimes we don't really have anything to do. So, we'd like to mess around with the cameras and stuff like that."

6. What have you gained, if anything, from getting to work, shoot, and interview people in your own community?

"I think the possibilities are endless. We kind of have like free rein of stories we want to do. And I think it's good to go out to the community, we make connections. And then when people see like our stories, them highlighting, they expect to like keep up with us. And I think it's a good way to like reach out to the community and for them to know more about us."

If you would like to join the class speak with your counselor!

You must be a South Bend Community School Corportation high school student and you can learn more about the curriculum here.

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