Derby High School student Xariyah Mitchell said WRBR helped with her confidence.
DERBY – A video production class at Derby High School creates a weekly news magazine show that is anything but stodgy.
The show, “WRBR,” is in its fourth year of production. It started as a traditional broadcast with anchors at a desk reading school announcements. Now it’s a multi-segmented show that reflects the personalities of its creators.
The 11-minute broadcast from May 17 starts with anchor Genesis Ocasio introducing the question of the week: ‘are you a hoarder?’ She then throws it to an edited segment during which student reporters Ismael Citalan and Matthew Wint pepper fellow students with the query.
Ismael and Matthew are quick on their feet and comfortable in front of the camera.
When a subject doesn’t know what the word “hoarder” means, Ismael fills him in: “It’s like a collector … but for trash,” he quips.
There’s a segment on prom fashion – with a nicely edited before-and-after video showing students in civilian clothes and then dressed for the big dance.
Students CJ Rouse and Johnathan Vinson discuss the legacy of Malcolm X, noting that Malcolm X Day was May 17.
Faith Van Ness checks in with a sports report, noting that Derby softball made the playoffs for the first time in five years.
‘Fast Facts with Jake Lebel’ features Jake talking with scout Quintin Simjouw about bears and bear safety, of course.
One of the tips: “Do not lather yourself in bear spray, or you will be in pain,” Quintin says.
The May 17 broadcast is embedded below. The article continues after the video.
It’s a fun watch, with the students delivering information while also being entertaining. That’s the type of news young people trust, according to an article from The Knight Foundation.
Jennifer Olson said creating the video production class was part of a larger strategy when she was named principal in 2021. She was previously the principal at Irving School, one of Derby’s two elementary schools.
“We set out to create a variety of electives that would engage kids and make them proud of the work and give them something to produce,” Olson said.
Music and the arts course offerings have expanded under Olson’s tenure. The school’s advanced manufacturing program launched a few years before she arrived.
The programs make the small school competitive with area magnet schools, Olson said.
The video production class is taught by technology teacher Thomas Hogan. He said it’s important to give students a voice in the topics and segments appearing each week on WRBR (‘We Are Big Red’).
The students are also being exposed to tech skills that could help them later on. In addition to writing, the students are learning video editing, graphic design, and everything else that goes into making a watchable show.
Derby High School teacher Thomas Hogan.
Each student has access to a MacBook to edit. There’s a studio in the back of the room, complete with a news desk, high-end camera, professional lights, and a green screen.
“We’re talking about learning a skill set that can really make themselves marketable in the future,” Hogan said.
Johnathan Vinson, a senior at the school, said he took the class because he’s thinking about going into television production.
“I want to be an animator in the future and I thought this would help out. I started to like it,” Jonathan said. “I started off talking about sports, but eventually I got my own segments and I would talk about stuff that I care about more.”
Now Johnathan is tackling social and cultural issues on the program. He said he hopes to use the technical skills he’s learning in the video production class to start creating content of his own outside of school.
Xariyah Mitchell, a Derby junior, said she signed up for the class just to fill her schedule – but she ended up liking it and signed up again (there’s video production one, which is an intro course, and then video production two, which is more advanced).
Xariyah said she wasn’t comfortable at first to get in front of the camera.
She created a weekly segment on Black History Month in February. Each week a different person was profiled.
She planned and hosted the segments.
“It helped me get out of my shell. I liked interviewing people and engaging with the school,” she said.
The following Derby High School students took video production this school year:
Alexander, Jerlena
Aponte, Louis
Barbera, Jayzair
Citalan, Ismael
Donaldson, Jay-Lynn
Maldonado, Dante
Mitchell, Xariyah
Ocasio, Genesis
Ortiz, Antonio
Rodriguez, Alyssa
Roman, Gabriel
Rouse, CJ
Scott, Rose
Suazo, Bryan D
Vinson, Johnathan
Wint, Matthew
Alvarado, Genesis
Amartey, Ferdinando
Anderson, Skylar
Barillas Ramirez, Nancy
Blake, Charles
Caba, Daniel
Cavallaro, Alexis
D’Amico, Nathan
Fernandez, Alyana
Lebel, Jake
McNeill, Isaac
Orazietti, Jamie
Orchano, Jennifer
Pawlowski, Joseph
Prutting, Brian
Robinson, Jo’Haun
Van Ness, Faith
Young, Joel
(Left to right) Derby High School students Louis Aponte and Johnathan Vinson.
