Editing, Leadership and Team Building

I will leave high school with three years of experience recruiting, training, scheduling, and managing a news team as RNE-TV Live’s News Director. This leadership position has developed my skills in conflict resolution, critical thinking, active listening, adaptability and problem-solving. As news director, I supervise a staff of ten people per day and leverage individual members' strengths and address weaknesses, which result in an increase of production efficiency.

CavPlex students typically have the opportunity to attend one regional conference and one national scholastic journalism conference each year. These conferences provide the opportunity to compete in on-site competitions in different types of media and submit previously published work to compete in a wide range of categories. Attending conferences helps students develop their craft and to network. At the Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference,  I met a group of student journalists that l keep in touch with and are a soundboard for each other’s ideas. I encourage all of my staff members to apply for journalism programs and conferences because of the valuable experiences they hold.

My senior year has provided me with the opportunity to be a teacher’s assistant. While there isn't a class during this period, I use this time to help my journalism advisors with any task they need to support the program. Tasks include assisting with inventory and organization of cameras and equipment, maintenance of equipment, and printing classroom materials. My extra time in the classroom as an assistant provided valuable time for me to plan the news show and the literary magazine. Since our program has experienced so much change in top program leadership with five different advisors, this time has been worthwhile and important for quickly forming a bond with the advisors this year. I have been able to discuss previous and current program standards and provide a unique perspective as one of the only broadcast journalists that has been in CavPlex for four years. The productive use of this time has helped to carry out the overall vision and mission of CavPlex.

At the middle of each week, the process of scheduling who is working the show for the next week begins. Another senior staff member and I ask everyone who is working the current week if they would like a week off, and if not, what job they would be interested in doing for the next week. If someone has been working for an extended period of time, we give them a couple of weeks off so that other staff members can work. We then work to fill any vacant slots with other trained staff. On Thursday or Friday, the schedule is posted. If a staff member can’t make the show one day, they reach out to us through text or email so we can begin to schedule a replacement.

My school is scheduled so that there are six possible CavPlex classes to be placed, and students aren't placed together based on publication. There are also no times outside of class that we could meet as a group (lunch, Learning Time), because of split lunches and school rules. This makes it difficult to meet with others working on the same publication. In an effort to help keep staff members engaged and on the same page, I hold weekly meetings on Google Meets. In the meeting, we discuss show schedules, story ideas, formats, updates, and challenges. I work to foster an open, transparent environment to enhance team collaboration.

Most of the feedback I give is provided in-person and one-on-one. This individualized approach makes it easier to give direction and corrections and plan and how it can be fixed. I provide detailed feedback on content to ensure high journalistic standards that result in improved reporting accuracy.

The critique provided is a sample of the type of feedback I provide to staff in my role as News Director. I chose to critique one of the first stories I created with Sam Weiss and Elizabeth Martinez-Pacheco during my freshman year when I was just learning how to report and create an impactful story. This story won NSPA Broadcast Story of the Year 4th Place for News in 2022. I chose not to include a critique from a staff member in its raw form because it would require me to publish a staff member's unfinished story. This written critique would have been followed up with an in-person discussion by me or one of the program advisors.

After each episode of RNE-TV Live, we take a couple of minutes as a team to go over what went well and what could be improved. These opportunities to troubleshoot errors to increase understanding of correct procedures is vital to each individual's growth, the improvement of our program, and our development as a cohesive team.

Formalizing procedures and processes has been an important mission of mine. Because our program experienced multiple changes in advisors, having a written guide has been important to ensure journalistic standards are upheld. During the summer, after my original mentor left the program, I worked to create these manuals for students to use. Both manuals are shared with all CavPlex students in Google Classroom.

The vast majority of the team building that happens in CavPlex is in the field and on the job connections. While the program has hosted many events like hot dog socials and potlucks, the main focus has been professional in nature. The bell schedule and class scheduling structure does not allow for students working on any publication to meet during the school day, even at lunch. But, we do gather as a team four days a week before school each day to produce the news show. We make these moments count to build trust, support, and to have fun. 

Each staff member that works the news show is added to a list where I am able to track what positions each member has been trained on. This helps with scheduling the show and ensuring that each position is filled. The skills list also helps me facilitate the training of staff members on new positions. Participation on the news show is completely voluntary. Since there is no requirement to participate, sometimes scheduling can be difficult. Flexibility of staff members is vital for the show's success, and cross training staff helps to ensure that we can maintain high standards at all times. This allows for greater flexibility when covering for the last minute absence of another staff member due to illness or a transportation issue.

I created a checklist that the News Director and each staff member go through before the beginning of each show to make sure that all show related tasks have been completed. This makes sure that no tasks have been forgotten and that errors are caught before the show begins.