Being able to share Nia Cornett’s story was a pivotal point in my journalistic career that taught me the impact of storytelling and a new way to go about it. The segment on Nia was proposed to me at the beginning of the year when I had little to no experience with emotional pieces. It changed the way I had to view interviewing as a whole. While in the past I had simply written questions about a topic and asked them without thinking, I now had to take emotional state and personal experiences into account to make sure the person I was interviewing was comfortable in discussing the topic and sharing it with a large audience. It taught me the importance of having longer interviews with a more discussional feel. Personalizing interviews in this way made it easier for me to not only make the interviewee feel comfortable but, to find the story within their answers as they devolved from my initial question. Without limiting my questions to the ones I wrote down, I was able to find more information and connect with the people I interviewed. Even now, I talk to Dani Bodine in the halls, someone I had never talked to before. In my future works, I took a more discussional approach to my interviews, using my written questions only as a general guideline. I think it helped me with storytelling and finding the heart of a piece. If I were to redo this piece, I would focus more on the technical aspects like lighting and focusing on the cover footage and interviews. 

When I met Dean and his family, I was the only person from Rampart who had met them face-to-face. For this segment, I had to keep a strong communication line with Dean’s family through email to plan meeting times and locations. I also had to reach out to the gymnastics company to plan where and when I could film. This segment thusly relied more than others on keeping strong communication lines outside of my school community. I had to be persistent to get the information I needed and do more research on filming than I was used to. The Bald 4 Bucks Hero Child segment was the furthest-reaching segment I have made in terms of who saw it. The segment was not only aired to the school but played throughout the district at the Bald 4 Bucks assembly. When this segment aired at the assembly, I was able to see the entire student body react to it and was thusly able to see the reaching impact of telling stories like Dean’s. Watching everyone react together once again displayed the power of journalism and a story. 

The Kathryn Hust piece taught me the power of a story. I was initially very worried about this piece because I wanted to make it the best I possibly could. Kathryn Hust wanted to ensure that her story would be inspirational and not saddening and the line between those felt very thin because of the severity of her story. This highlighted the need for a good voiceover especially considering that there were very few people to interview on the topic. It also made me question what was appropriate to share and how the audience would perceive it so I could ensure the piece was inspirational. Kathryn Hust deciding to tell her story was a show of her power and her want to connect with the community. This segment pushed my voiceover and editing skills to make the story flow as well as possible and tell it cohesively. Hust’s story took place over 8 years, making there so much information that needed to be cut down to three minutes. This made it even more important to find a good flow for the story that would give the audience everything they needed to feel its impact. By the end of this story, I truly realized the importance of storytelling and the power of choosing to tell a story or to stay silent. Being able to see the story go out to the school and being thanked by Kathryn Hust made me love and appreciate journalism all that much more. 

Initially, Hispanic Heritage Month seemed like a daunting topic to cover because of the numerous important topics I could share. This felt doubled when my groupmates began to tell me every idea they could think of that I could include. It felt overwhelming and impossible to convey within a three-minute package. My Hispanic Heritage Month segment taught me how to find the heart of a story and the importance of having a focus that relates directly to the audience. For this segment, I interviewed several people on their Hispanic heritage but, ultimately decided to focus on the Cultura Hispana class. I made this decision because, despite attending Rampart for four years, I hadn’t heard of the class. By concentrating on the class and its celebrations at Rampart, I added personal importance to the audience for the topic. This is a technique I learned in English for writing essays about the importance of a personal connection to the audience to grab attention. My issue then became with editing, I had a lot of information to share in a short amount of time and had to find a cohesive throughline to connect all of the information. This is where I would edit the segment the most if I could redo it. Though in the end, I think I chose the correct information while editing, my voiceover could connect the elements more naturally. For example, instead of saying “Kram decided to ask…”, I could have directly led into Hispanic Heritage Month's importance from the celebrations to make the segment flow better. This segment ultimately taught me the importance of editing a segment for my audience and the importance of a good voiceover to make a story flow well. 

The Buche de Noel competition happened right before my deadline making this the only segment I completed within a day. On this segment, I worked with Makenna Blatnick, another head editor for KRAM. Together, we planned everything out ahead of time but only had about two hours to get the filming and interviews done. This segment taught me the importance of planning ahead and working efficiently when things don’t go as planned. Though the competition was set to start after school, I received a text before the end of the day that the cake tasting had already started. I grabbed a camera and rushed over as quickly as possible with my partner to get the footage we needed. Shifting gears and altering plans became an important lesson in journalism because of the unpredictability of life. If I were to redo this segment, I would add to the voiceover to make the transitions more seamless from topic to topic. 

Boys Lacrosse taught me the importance of natural sound in a segment to keep the audience’s attention and how to find a story in what seems initially mundane. Unlike my other pieces this year, boys' lacrosse didn’t have an apparent focus right out of the gate. After asking several members of the lacrosse team, I found that there was slight tension within the team due to the different schools that make it up, which I decided to focus on. Finding a focus within a segment makes the segment more interesting to the audience because it makes it more story-based and less information-based. I found that another way to maintain attention in a segment is to use closeups and natural audio as visual and auditory engagement. These technical aspects of the segment made the segment more appealing as a whole. Going back to basics with finding a focus, using close-up cover footage, and natural sound helped me make this segment more interesting for the audience. If I were to redo this segment in the future, I would get even more interviews of players for more opposing views on the team dynamic.

This segment made me take interview equipment on a plane for the first time. The JEA nationals trip segment preparation had to be conducted in a way I had never done before because of location and timing. Using a camera while going on tours and being in sessions forced me to find good filming times, quickly adjust lighting, and even use my phone as a more portable camera if something unexpected happened. This felt much faster-paced than my other segments because I only had one chance to get moments on camera. Planning to be ready to go in those moments was crucial and taught me the importance of planning while filming and getting interviews. This was very different from my typical slow pace for filming and editing. If I could redo this segment, I would plan everything further in advance to avoid the moments of rushing. This segment also showed me firsthand why I want to share stories like this. Since I knew the majority of the people in the segment, it was amazing to see their excitement at their awards firsthand and be the one to share that with my school. A segment directly relating to me and people I know further expressed the importance of journalism and sharing one's excitement with others. This made me more passionate about storytelling.