{"id":433,"date":"2018-04-27T18:16:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T18:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baltimore2018.nextgenradio.org\/?page_id=433"},"modified":"2018-04-27T18:43:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T18:43:06","slug":"students-reflect-on-program","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/baltimore2018.nextgenradio.org\/students-reflect-on-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Reflect on Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wyman Jones
\nWhen I reflect back on this week as a whole, I realize two very important lessons from this program. The first lesson is that there is a lot more to storytelling than just the who, what, when, where, and why of a story. There is much more behind the scenes work that goes into effectively telling a story to your audience. Some of these things include gathering information, transferring and saving files, logging and transcribing quotes from subjects, having back up story ideas in case one fails, and the list goes on. Organization plays an important part in the development of a story.<\/p>\n

The second thing I learned is that I must be able to write if I want a job in my career field. This took me a while to understand. I was blind to the idea for years because I felt my focus is in production and I wouldn\u2019t need to have an excellent or even a proficient skill set as a writer.<\/p>\n

The reality of the situation is completely the opposite, I do need to be proficient. Any person can learn shortcuts in media editing software, have the best camera equipment for the job, and know the concept for the film you want to create. But to be able to take those concepts, ideas and thoughts and put them out on paper, for yourself and others to understand, that is what separates successful projects from those that fail.<\/p>\n

While I may hate writing, the idea of knowing that every word I type takes me one step closer to a storytelling work of art, motivates me to want to take a writing class to understand the basics better. While I have learned many things that I will take with me, these were really the two that stuck out to me the most.<\/p>\n

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\nSimone Benson
\n<\/span>This week has been a learning process for me. When I saw the workload, I was immediately worried about completing the process by the end of the week. I will admit, I was not confident I had skills to do this. It was a relief that I reached the goal of completing\u00a0my project.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Next Generation Radio program gave me the confidence that I can have a voice in this world of journalism. I was finally comfortable to use my voice as a writer and tell the stories I desire. All of the mentors were extremely helpful in every way possible. The environment was structured and it was a productive atmosphere. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am forever grateful for this opportunity because the skills I learned through this program are going to advance me in my career. One of the many takeaways I have from this program is to always be kind and know that there is always someone there to help. Often times we compete as journalists to have the best story. But, if you work as a team and really have a heart for storytelling that’s how the best stories are told. I just want to be a great storyteller and after this week I am positive I can do so. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\nShayla Klein
\n<\/span>I wanted to be a part of Next Generation Radio since I took a trip to NPR Headquarters with my school\u2019s RTDNA chapter. Doug Mitchell, the program\u2019s director, gave us a tour and then sat us down to tell us about Next Generation Radio. After I went home, I looked up the previous projects, and I thought it looked super cool and fun, but I never would have imagined the tremendous value of the program until I started it this week. <\/span><\/p>\n

My story was on JC Faulk, a black activist in Baltimore. Collecting the audio and taking the pictures all went very smoothly. The part that was the most difficult was sitting down to write the web story and the captions for social videos. Most of the stories I have written before were not as personal as this project was. I struggled a lot with trying to write his personal story as a white person. I would have these moments were I felt like I didn\u2019t have the right to tell his personal story since I didn\u2019t share the same experiences. In the end, though, I feel like I did a fairly good job of presenting my subject accurately. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another big lesson that I learned this week is that it\u2019s important to take breaks during work. Our editor, Traci Tong, would have us take breaks and play with silly putty or play a game. I remember one time I was so caught up in editing my story that when she told us it was time for a break, ten seconds in, I was thinking, \u201cCan I go back to work now?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get so caught up in your work that you forget to take some down time for yourself, but Next Generation Radio taught me that I am not my work, and there are so many experiences that I shouldn\u2019t miss that are non-work related. In that same vein, through the workshops at the beginning, I learned that it\u2019s OK to say no to jobs that you don\u2019t want to take. You should interview a job just as much as they interview you, and know when you have enough on your plate. <\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u2019m sad that the week is over, I\u2019m excited to take my lessons and experiences and put them into future work.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Robert Simmons
\n<\/span>After a frantic 56 hours of interview cancellations, cold calls, Instagram DM\u2019s, and fierce googling, I finally sat down with Jamar Jones, a local filmmaker, to capture his story. <\/span><\/p>\n

I had a mentor by my side and we\u2019d knocked out a dry run earlier in the day, but I still felt slightly nervous and unprepared. My mind has been wired from my background in video production to approach a story thinking visually, and, generally, to have more than an hour of preparation. But, through the chaos, I absorbed so much about radio. <\/span><\/p>\n

To start, here are some words of radio wisdom I picked up from my mentor, Daisy Rosario, of WAMU, Washington, DC, (paraphrased by Rob) throughout the week:<\/span><\/p>\n