Student-run broadcast offers ability to learn a career
For the first time ever, Hays High students are producing video broadcasts of school announcements.
The endeavor is made possible in Hays High’s advanced audio and visual class, which operates KHYS, the school’s television broadcast station.
Students in KHYS produced two videos for the months in February and March for its broadcasting project.
In the videos, students make announcements about school-wide news and upcoming events, present a feature story produced in class, and show a public service announcement (PSA) produced by the AV1 class.
“What it really came down to was that we wanted more than just the announcements, we wanted feature stories, we wanted to use PSAs from the a/v 1 class, because I think that’s part of the reason why they do it, not for the announcements, but for their own story to be released and for them to show their skill levels.”
–Donald Davis, AV production teacher at Hays High School
Senior Stefani Riojas sees a future in the audio and visual world.
“I like all aspects of it. When I first came in last year I was set on becoming a director because I am a very controlling person, but I found that I love also working behind the camera and operating it, and I love to edit because it is very tedious work and I love getting it perfect, and I love just the simplest parts, like handling the audio. It really just has opened my eyes to a lot of new things,” Riojas said.
On March 29, students recorded an announcement from Hays High Principal David Pierce as he stood in front of a green screen and read from a teleprompter about safety.
The AV class is an elective within the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department, and students are learning to master videography, photography, audio and video editing along with many other pre and post-production skills.
Donald Davis, AV production teacher at Hays, says he has been trying to do a broadcasting project like this for a few years now.
Davis said 2018 was the third year Hays High has fielded an a/v 2 class. However, KHYS is the first time students have released something “where I was actually happy with what we put together.”
“What it really came down to was that we wanted more than just the announcements, we wanted feature stories, we wanted to use PSAs from the a/v 1 class, because I think that’s part of the reason why they do it, not for the announcements, but for their own story to be released and for them to show their skill levels,” Davis said.
The videos are not shown live, but are put into the school announcements as a link. Some teachers show the videos in class, but Davis says he warns teachers that the videos are around 15 minutes long.
Davis says that students run the project. That freedom is what some of the students value the most.
“The freedom is honestly my favorite part. You don’t have a box, you can go anywhere, it’s anything you want to do,” senior Freddy Rojo said. “It’s completely different from any other classroom, it’s like a different environment, everybody here is like a family.”
Rojo is aiming to produce or edit as his future career goals. While some are looking toward their careers, others just enjoy the class for what it is, a fun elective.
“I love being able to take pieces of a puzzle and putting it together, like taking the pieces of what you film and putting it together yourself. I don’t think I see myself doing this as a career, but maybe as a hobby,” senior Cade Powell said.
Class is held in a part computer lab and part garage.
As part of the 2017 bond package, both Lehman and Hays high schools will have 1,600 square-foot broadcasting studios with new equipment. The Hays’ broadcasting studio will be housed in the current band hall facility. KHYS’ current broadcasting studio will be converted into an auto technology bay.
“I have mixed emotions,” Riojas said of the new building. “It makes me so happy knowing that we started from this and the students after us get to move to that and have more opportunities, but I’m also a little jealous.”
