The new television studio built by the student-led Sisters High School Audio/Visual program is up and running, complete with lights, cameras, monitors, teleprompters and, of course, talented students delivering the news.
"It's, frankly, an inspiration for our staff and for our students and our whole school community," said Principal Steve Stancliff.
"Over the past four years, this has always kind of been the main goal and we've been chipping away at it year by year," said Sisters A/V Program President Jack Turpen.
Each week, the students produce a weekly newscast that the entire school views during second period.
"So every Monday, we have a script written, and we do film news," said sophomore Conlan Archer. "It gets put out on YouTube and all the classrooms watch it during second period and kind of just informs them what's going on in the week."
"We go to talk to different teachers, see what events are going on," said junior Kellen Werts. "Then we write the script. And then we figure out all the lighting, see what works best. And then we have our teleprompter here. We make sure that that's all set and ready to go. And then Jack counts us down and we take it away."
Turpen said the weekly news segments last from five to nine minutes each week. Topics include student and community information, sports and weather.
But it doesn't stop with the studio. The program also films, produces and livestreams football games, student events and graduation.
"I feel like a lot of our classmates feel it's pretty impressive, the production we put on every week. And so the response is pretty cool," said sophomore Grace Fendall.
"We have a ton of really talented people who have come together and have really just poured their time and energy into making this program function," Turpen said.
"One more way for us to be able to share our story and share all the cool things that are happening," Stancliff said.
Everything is done by the students. The students raise the funds for the equipment. They raise the funds for the studio construction and they film, edit and produce all the content.
"I've always been very passionate in photography and videography and my dad kind of took that path for his life and it just inspired me. I find a lot of joy, personally, doing it," said sophomore Morgan Daniel.
"This is almost like a second team. It's kind of just like bonding and just having a lot of fun and just hanging out with people you like," said junior Joe Souza.
Turpen said none of it would be possible without the support of the community.
