Alumni Q&A: “Find your story and tell it your way” – How WCNC Producer Reece Harnett started working towards his goals in high school
Date: January 7. 2026
By: Anthony Payne
SRL alum Reece Harnett graduated from High Point University in 2024 with a producer job already lined up at WCNC Charlotte. Reece first got involved with Student Reporting Labs in high school and was a participant in the 2019 Summer Academy – but he began honing his skills even earlier.
In this Alumni Q&A, Reece shares tips on putting yourself out there, seeing the forest for the trees, and details the steps he took as early as high school to land himself a producer role in his first year as a new grad.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.
How did you get your first internships and experience?
I got my first experience doing news production in high school. I was very lucky that my high school program was so fantastic. I had a lovely teacher, and really I just started doing everything. I was doing interviews, and I had my own series called Reece’s Road Trips, where I went and reported on all different crazy places around the Carolinas. It was really just a great starter. Once I got to college, I started applying for internships. The way I applied was just finding people who work there, emailing them and trying to have a conversation. And that’s how I got where I am now, at WCNC Charlotte. In high school, I emailed their news director and general manager and said, “is there any chance that I can just talk with you? I’m a high school student and I’m going into college and I want to have an internship eventually.” I was in communication with them for a long time, so that once I was in college and had a lot more experience with news production, I could get that internship spot here at WCNC.
What advice would you give to a high school student who wants to get started in journalism?
To start.
It can be so daunting to look at national news or your local station and think, these are such big stories – but you don’t have to start big. Start small, do the fundamentals. The fundamentals of journalism are talking to people, understanding, and then eventually taking those points and helping others understand. So start small. Interview your parents, interview teachers, interview your friends. Start building those conversation skills. You wanna ask questions that are not “yes or no.” You wanna ask questions that bring out emotions from people. And once you get good at that, the world’s your oyster. You can start doing any story, and you can really start building up the skills to make your creative side even better.
What inspires you and gives you motivation to continue this work?
So many things, but truly it is the feedback. Whether it’s from coworkers or viewers or my family members who maybe have watched one of the shows I’ve produced. Getting feedback. And hearing that people have listened, people have read, people have understood what you’ve worked on is one of the greatest things. And even if it’s bad feedback or constructive, as long as you have people who are reaching out to you and telling you, “hey, your work reached me,” it’s the most amazing thing, and that’s what motivates me.
What would you say is the most important lesson that you’ve learned working in the industry?
One of the most important lessons I have learned working in industry came from my digital director here at WCNC Charlotte, Blair Schiff, an amazing mentor of mine. She once told me, when I was very much bogged down in producing my show, that every story matters to someone. It’s very easy when you’re a producer, indoors looking at a screen all day and trying to build a show, to forget that. Always remember that every story matters. When you’re writing a story, take great care in how you do so, because when you put it on air or put it online there’s going to be a group of people who read it. Maybe it’s a large group, maybe it’s a small group, but it really impacts them. It’s important to make sure that when you are writing or when you’re on camera to make sure you remember those people, because it will always be impactful to somebody.
Any advice to students currently applying to colleges?
Applying to colleges is another very daunting thing. You want to make sure that you are the best you can be and represent all that you are. And that is very hard, especially if you feel like you have not been the top of your class or the president of a club. It’s so easy to be bogged down by the things that you’re not. The advice I would give is to remember who you are. Find your story, whatever it is. It does not need to be the greatest thing imaginable. But know that it’s your story, and tell it your way. That’s how you get through to people – not just when applying for colleges, but in life. So find your story, curate it your way, and then give that out to the world.