HOW I GOT
HERE
I got my start in the storage room of my high school’s video classroom. There were shelves of S-VHS tapes documenting years of the school’s television program, and I wanted to make sure that history was preserved. I began digitizing the tapes. A year later, I made a documentary that brought alumni back to share their stories and talk about how the program had shaped their lives.
Now I’m a senior at Montclair State University, where I’ve been able to take on bigger productions and work with the amazing students and professors at this college.
Last semester, I brought an idea to our Montclair News Lab class: produce a show using the studio cameras and control room. Staffing a full control room wasn’t always practical for our class, but I wanted us to try it at least once. My professor agreed, with one condition: I had to produce it.
That became our College Television Awards special. I produced the show, produced three of its four packages, and served as technical director. It was a lot to take on. The most rewarding part was seeing my classmates become more comfortable with television production as we worked through it together.
This semester, I’m continuing with Montclair News Lab and helping build News Kit, a tool that uses Google Sheets to organize newsroom workflows and program shows for vMix. I’m developing it with the help of agentic coding tools and putting it to use with our student crew.
I like having a hand in both the story and the technical work that gets it on air. As I finish my time at Montclair, I’m looking for opportunities to bring that experience to another crew and keep learning.
