BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It all began with a group of 12 students from Sweet Home High School, all curious about the news process and the journalism field.
Over the course of two months, the WKBW News Literacy team, consisting of on-air and behind the scenes members, met with the students to discuss story topics, to craft interview questions and to shoot their piece. "Our aim here was to create the most realistic news experience possible for these students," said 7 Eyewitness News Executive Producer Shannon Ross, "and to show how everyone in the newsroom works together to get the product on the air."
The project culminated with an open house at 7 Eyewitness News in downtown Buffalo. The students were writing, tracking and editing their finished product with members of the WKBW team working side-by-side with them every step of the way.
"I think it's cool, the behind the scenes stuff," said Sweet Home Freshman Faith Ooft. "You watch this in the morning, you watch news, you don't really know anything about it, it's just cool walking around, seeing how you guys do everything.
"Just to have my school be picked out of a lot of schools in Western New York that's really special," said Sweet Home High School senior, Michael Territo.
"We've were really fortunate to work with students and staff from both Sweet Home and Erie 1 BOCES, everyone was so engaged and accommodating and so excited, you couldn't ask for a better group to work with," added Shannon Ross.
"I've been in education for 30 years and I was telling a colleague of mine that this has been one of the greatest experiences I have had in teaching, bringing this group of kids to work with the News Literacy Program."
Exploring Erie 1 BOCES: Check out the story created by these student journalists:
Checkout our Behind the Scenes Gallery by clicking here.
