Students at Northwest High School learn mechanics of operating an award-winning TV newscast, preparing them to excel in journalism programs.
More High Schools are offering opportunities for students to pick a career path, and focus their studies in one area.
In the Northwest Independent School District, one of those paths is TV news.
The students become employees of a student-run TV station on campus and are tasked with delivering daily live broadcasts to every classroom in Northwest High School.
Student Annie Funk spends two class periods in the school’s newsroom and part of lunch.
"This is a live broadcast you've got to get it done, you can't have excuses, if somethings not right, it's not right, its on you," Funk said.
The students are treated like employees and their teacher is like their boss.
"It's not just the equipment, they're learning life skills that are skills no matter what field they go into," said teacher Jeremy Rawe.
The program is called an "Academy." Students choose a directed career path, like TV, and increase their knowledge from 8th to 12th grades.
The students have an opportunity to figure out if they love being out gathering news, directing the show, or being center stage.
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"Some people don't love to talk as much as I do, sometimes it's hard difficult to get them excited, sometimes they've very nervous," said student anchorwoman Klover Gandy.
News teams like to brag about their awards — this one's no different. NHS TV won best student run newscast in the southwest four years in a row. It's one of the top four student-produced newscasts in the nation.
"Our kids have a competitive advantage over most of these other kids," Rawe said.
The district says it’s one of the reasons they invest in these types of academies. The programs make sure students arrive at college focused and prepared to succeed.
"I think going into college a lot of people don't know what they want to do, but I know I want to do this and I'm going to do what I can to get where I want to go," Funk said.
Northwest High School also runs a STEM academy, which teaches students about engineering, computer science and cyber security.
