This year, Granby’s journalism class has been selected to participate in the McNeil-Lehrer PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs program. Throughout the year, the students will be taught video reporting skills and techniques by professionals from PBS and WHRO.

     “It was designed to teach students about electronic and video journalism,” said WHRO producer Lisa Godley of the project. “Things they wouldn’t normally learn about until college, or during internships.”

     Granby was selected because of Hampton Roads' dropout rate, our diverse population, and our local public broadcast station, WHRO. Students will be visited by professionals and will even have exclusive access to PBS resources, such as film footage, feedbacks and edits from PBS mentors.

     “My passion is training future journalists,” Godley said. Godley and a WHRO production crew have already visited the journalism class in September, instructing students about proper lighting, videography, and interview strategies. “I love kids learning about my profession; I’m really looking forward to working with them and seeing what incredible stories they write.”

      The students will be covering the dropout rate of high school students, the ultimate goal being to create an end product worthy of the PBS NewsHour, a news broadcast weeknights on PBS at 7pm. If their video report on the dropout rate is good enough, it could be featured on the air, as well as the PBS website. The NewsHour was the inspiration for the student reporting labs.

     “The news lacked a youth perspective, especially from stories involving education, so the Student Voices section was added,” said Thaisi Da Silva, Assistant Editor at PBS. “And from this we created the Student Reporting Labs to better educate students.”

     The program offers many various opportunities and options for students, letting students take on the role of anything from reporter to producer to videographer, giving them realistic insight into the world of video journalism.

     The PBS Student Reporting Labs program is only a few years old, and Granby is one of only 26 schools across the country and the only school in Virginia participating.

     To find more information and to check up on Granby’s video reports, visit the Student Reporting Labs website at http://www.studentreportinglabs.com/reporting-lab/granby-high-school.