Video Display Creates Interest for College
At Miami Trace High School in Ohio, three high school seniors know exactly what direction they want to go based off their experience in the classroom working with their Daktronics video display.
5/16/2018
Categories: High School Sports
It’s that time of year again. Senior high school students bid farewell and we wish them the best as they venture off to their next pursuits. We were able to speak to two students at Miami Trace High School and their teacher to find out how their class time working with Daktronics equipment impacted their future aspirations.
Miami Trace has a flourishing media program, spearheaded by Laura Hottinger. The high school installed an impressive video display a year ago and tasked Laura with its operations and content. School is the place for education, and she and her students jumped in head first. Within the first year of operations, they’ve created an impressive list of content for the display:
- Player headshots
- Commercials and sponsor ads
- Cheers
- Hype and music videos
- a Panther promise video thanking sponsors
- sound effects
- animations, logos, memes
- live feed
- PSAs
The list could go on. Thirty students created all of the content and even send senior videos to students for their own use at graduation parties. All of this experience ties into their curriculum, from editing videos to running PSAs for other extracurriculars, videoing fine arts productions and more. All of this collaboration gives the students real life experience for the workforce.
Wesley Seyfang and Emily Sharp are heading to college in the fall, with Emily majoring in video motion graphics and Wesley in digital media production. Emily explained that content creation and storytelling drew her into the field, along with the different opportunities available in the entertainment field. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but this class helped me make up my mind. It might be a long shot, but one day I’d love to work with big-time movies, shows or a news station.”
Wesley Seyfang (left) and Emily Sharp (right), Miami Trace High School seniors
Wesley creates his own music and likes working with videos, making his own entertainment. “This class helped me decide what I want to go into for a career. I really hope to be filming for major channels or doing some type of broadcasting, maybe as a field reporter.”
It’s easy to hear the pride in their teacher’s voice when she talks about the steps the school took to get to this place. “Previously, we taught print-focused communications like the newspaper and have focused on digital-based applications like the website, so we do broadcast journalism now. Next year, we want to do video announcements each day and have a weekly news show.”
Getting the video board changed our program to what we’re doing today.
Want to see more from Miami Trace. You’re in luck. We also interviewed, David Lewis, Superintendent to get his perspective.