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by Abigail Clawson
She goes unseen, hidden behind the camera and her work. She helps call the shots, operating behind the scenes in various roles, but this time it was her turn to share a personal piece of her story on camera.
“[Being interviewed for Veterans Day] was kind of hard because my dad being gone, it’s not really easy because like just a whole side of you is gone, so it’s kind of hard to be personal with it,” said Katelyn Hill, a junior broadcasting student. “It’s kind of hard to find a good balance of not wanting to make yourself cry and not trying to be like all light, like it’s a joke.”
The Veterans Day compilation came to play through a combined idea from Hill and the broadcast president, junior Lilli Rowan, to create a tribute to all who sacrificed to protect our freedoms. As the two built upon their original idea, Rowan wanted Hill to share her experience with her dad deployed, finishing the video with a clip of him thanking NS for the recognition.
This pattern is typical as, under the direction of video specialist and teacher Barrett Hilton, they work everyday to share pieces of NS with the student body and the community as part of the school’s broadcasting.
“You kind of just get to film a video about whatever you’re passionate about at the moment,” Rowan said. “I made the schedule video because I had some strong feelings towards the new schedule. I got to kind of say my opinion but also show the other side of the opinion because some people did like it and I didn’t like it, so it just kind of lets you show your opinions in a creative way.”
The valuable chance to combine their work and opinion comes as part of the class’s goal to showcase NS. As students work to cover various angles, they see how important their part is as so many see their work.
“[Broadcasting] kind of lets you express yourself, but everyone can see it,” Hill said. “But it’s kind of cool because it’s not like it’s you saying it, it’s your work, but you don’t have to be seen.”
This work is greatly appreciated, but what makes the program stand out is the way the students take responsibility and push themselves.
“This year I really felt that we had the most solid core of students who’ve been here for a while and really know what they’re doing because it truly is a student-run operation,” Hilton said. “That’s one thing I insist on. I’m here and I help them, but I don’t see any value unless the students are in charge of everything.”
Placing students in charge requires a high level of trust, as well as a unique group to pull it off successfully and as well as this broadcasting class does.
“So I would say [this group stands out] because they’re very self motivated and hardworking and enthusiastic,” Hilton said. “It’s a few that are kind of the leaders of the group, and the rest see that example and they follow, so it’s good. These students right now are very self-motivated because I’m not here a lot, I can’t help them very much.”
These incredible students were drawn to the class for various reasons, but all stay because of a love for it.
“I joined broadcasting because I took the film class before,” senior Salem Kimball said, “and I just kind of wanted to expand my horizon and just learn more about something I was already interested in.”
Kimball explains that his favorite part of broadcasting is having a place to showcase his work, but he appreciates the opportunity to finally do the talk show and gain experience he wouldn’t otherwise receive.
“The talk show is kind of mine, Trayson [Thompson], and Kaleb [Cox’s] mind baby,” Kimball said. “We pitched it to Mr. Hilton and he accepted it…So the broadcasting class films it for us and they’ve been very generous in doing that.”
For others, the class provides the opportunity to discover their talent and passion for broadcasting. Rowan found that she learned skills she didn’t expect to like or want to know, but she found that editing is one of her favorite things to do.
“For last year we did the Utah Musical Theater Awards for the musical, and we got nominated so we had to edit together like the best clips of the musical of those certain actors or actresses,” Rowan said. “And it was so much fun to be like, ‘You looked good here so let’s do that,’ and make them shine and look amazing.”
All this work goes towards promoting NS and its students, but doing so requires hours of dedication in order to produce the quality of work seen from the broadcasting class.
“Freshman year, the musical and play, we had about a week and no one was really doing anything,” Hill said, “so we missed like every single class for two days straight and edited and burned so many cd’s. It was kind of a pain, but it was so much fun working straight at it and not really taking any breaks—we kind of forgot that lunch happened. It’s so much fun that you just kind of like get drawn in.”
