In the world of broadcasting, experience and knowledge can be infinite. There are people who can be met along the way who offer education and wisdom—both of which are priceless.
For a wide variety of students who are interested in a future of broadcasting, the options available here, at Centennial High School, are greater than one may think. The school has classes for video production and Cougar Connection—a school broadcast that is run by students—and both classes are good programs to get into. However, Digital Video Club is a new and promising way that helps students, who are serious about broadcasting, to build up their portfolio for college, all the while learning to do new things.
“’Just film it’ is our motto,” said Kelsey Crandall, a senior at Centennial, as she laughed and nodded. Her shoes squeaked as she made her way down a hallway filled with physical science students who were testing out paper airplanes. “You get access and experience to a lot of great programs that aren’t always available to you otherwise.”
As one of the editors of not only Centennial’s yearbook, but also of Inscriptions Newspaper, Kelsey already has a lot on her hands, but her fascination of broadcasting lead her to DVC.
Kelsey explained, “We’re making a video yearbook for the first time. It’s the video documentation of school events that have taken place this year. We want to make sure we get the highlights and all the fun stuff.”
Though Lauren Bertrand is the Student Producer of what will be the video yearbook, it is Kelsey who has been given the responsibility of approving what DVC does. It might be strange that Kelsey holds leadership roles in most of the clubs she is in, but she insists that she worked hard for it.
“For Yearbook, I was in it last year. I actually thought it was going to be a slacker class, and I was like, ‘Sweet, I’ll have an easy art credit!’ anyway, so I took it, and it ended up being the most stressful class that I took, but I kept through it, and now I am where I am,” said Kelsey. She smiled, knowing that she was not the first person to mistake Yearbook for a slacker class.
Mikey Deeb, another Centennial senior, yearbook photographer, and DVC member said, “I actually got into [DVC] because I could integrate my work in the yearbook into the video yearbook, and I like photography and stuff. I love being able to say to people, ‘Hey, that picture you’re looking at, I took that.’”
At the same time, Digital Video Club definitely does not equal Video Yearbook Club, if there ever was such a thing. The video yearbook is simply something they work on, but members of DVC are certainly welcome to put time into anything else they please.
“DVC isn’t all about the video yearbook. It’s about making your portfolio and doing your thing,” assured Kelsey. “It’s kind of whatever you want, like, you can make a slideshow if you want to. It’s basically so you can work on, maybe, a college portfolio if you want to go into some sort of broadcast. It gets your feet wet.”
Although DVC is a great opportunity, not many students are taking advantage of it, and the club could always use more members.
“We meet after school at 3:05 to 4:30, give or take, as long asyou want to be there. You can talk to Mr. Crawford about it in the white building. He’s in the video production room,” Kelsey said. “DVC is a completely student produced club, so it’s just like another extra curricular activity, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s definitely a lot of hard work, and it can be stressful, but it’s worth it. It’s a good stress.”