Wingspan and WTV students took top honors at FISD’s 3rd Annual Broadcast Competition. As a whole, students took home Best of Show and Best Online News Publication.
Seniors Maya Silberman and Sadie Johnson (pictured) competed in the Online Multimedia Story and won first place.
Many of the on-site competitions gave students five hours to put together a complete story, start to finish. The pair wrote their story about the CTE Center preparing students to be future-ready through practicum programs.
Senior Karina Grokhovskaya (pictured) is an Executive Producer for WTV, and competed in General News Package. Grokhovskaya believes being an Executive Producer for the Daily Update prepared her for the competition.
“I got first place in general news package, and I think the only thing that was really different for me was that it was a competition,” Grokhovskaya said. “[For Wingspan], we post an update every single day, so having to learn how to edit fast and get stories finished fast is part of what I do every day as a producer.”
Wingspan Editor-in-Chiefs, seniors Maya Silberman (pictured) and Haley Ward’s story on Friday Night Lights won first in Online Multimedia Story.
WTV Producer, junior Joaquin Perez competed in General Sports News Package and put together a first-place story. “I feel like I really learned what it takes in the real world,” Perez said.
Broadcast and journalism students across the district competed in the third annual Frisco ISD Broadcast Competition at the CTE Center on Tuesday and Wednesday with Wingspan and WTV students earning high honors, winning Best Online News Publication and Best of Show for the third year in a row.
“Winning is not something I ever want my students to assume as journalism contests are incredibly subjective,” Wingspan and WTV adviser Brian Higgins said. “So wherever it comes to this competition or even state and national events, I try to keep it simple for the students: do what we do and trust what you have learned.”
Students were able to compete in several pre-submit categories, where stories from throughout the 2023-24 school year are submitted and scored by professional journalists from throughout the DFW area.
“The pre-submit contests are actually the hardest in some ways as you know every school is going to enter their best work from the year,” Higgins said. “WTV and Wingspan students have done some really strong work and it was challenging to decide on what stories should be entered.”
More than 70 journalism students from throughout the district competed in the on-site competitions, where they received a prompt in the morning and were given five hours to plan, conduct interviews, edit, and put together a completed story.
“It was a challenge to have that short time span to prepare everything, with having to contact teachers and get b-roll for all our shots,” WTV Staff Reporter, senior Sadie Johnson said. “I’ve edited quickly before, and had to do it then, but it was a good look at what it’s like in real life.”
For WTV Executive Producer, senior Karina Grokhovskaya, working on the Daily Update prepared her for the competition.
“I got first place in general news package, and I think the only thing that was really different for me was that it was a competition,” Grokhovskaya said. “[For Wingspan], we post an update every single day, so having to learn how to edit fast and get stories finished fast is part of what I do every day as a producer.”
After the on-site competitions, students had the opportunity to hear from journalism industry professionals.
“I think my favorite part was listening to the speakers,” senior Ryan Shapiro said. “I really learned a lot about different jobs and different perspectives and pathways to get to where I want to be in the journalism field.”
