Xavier’s Broadcast Journalism and Video Art students have joined a new program this year: PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs (SRL).

SRL is a national journalism initiative designed by PBS News Hour to connect middle school and high school students with their local public stations. 

Participants of this program produce original and youth-focused news reports through the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) News Hour.

Xavier students involved in the program were assigned their first project in October. The assignment was to interview a problem-solver in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field.

For this project, there were six groups within the Broadcast Journalism course. These groups included Team Women in STEM (Honeywell), Team Conservation, Team Wild at Heart (owl conservation), Team Bridge Building (connection of coding and business) and Team Difference Maker (teacher promoting STEM).

One team focused on women in STEM. This team interviewed Honeywell pilot Kiah Erlich inside an airplane, while discussing the role of technology in solving aviation problems.

Another team interviewed Xavier AP Environmental Science teacher Patrice Whalen, who discussed her work at the conservation center.

A third team interviewed Xavier Honors Anatomy and Physiology teacher Dr. Camille King and Bob Fox, the director and founders of  Wild at Heart Owl Conservation center, onsite at Fox’s center.

The next team, Team Bridge Building, shared how bridging the gap between coding and business impacts our daily lives.

Team Difference Maker interviewed a local eighth grade teacher who is making a difference in STEM by implementing a STEM class at his school to help children get involved in the field sooner.

Each problem solver group was asked how their final video production is coming along and each of the group’s leaders responded positively. Senior Mary Long, Team Conservation leader, said, “We chose the topic because Madeline [Warren] and I both had Ms. Whalen had her as a teacher last year and we experienced first hand her efforts to improve the conservation knowledge of students in Arizona. The editing is a little difficult, we did not get as much B-roll, but the overall interview aspect went great and we are all enjoying the process.”

Group leader, senior Lily Gonzales, said that her group is enjoying working with their topic. “I personally like video editing [because] it’s creative and technical and both are aspects of what I enjoy doing,” Gonzales said.

All the teams are currently in the process of editing their final cut. Groups will submit their work to the PBS News Reporting Lab by Nov. 17.

The members of the PBS team will choose a select number of videos to be broadcasted on national television.