SRL Partner Station of the Month: September 2015

Detroit Public Television is our station of the month!

This summer, DPTV hosted Evan Gulock, a member of our SRL Academy. It was the mentorship of not just one person at Detroit Public TV, but the entire station that enabled Evan to produce a piece on Clark Park which aired on PBS NewsHour.

We caught up with Georgeann Herbert, DPTV’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Community Engagement, to find out her reaction.

What is your reaction to finding out DPTV was selected as SRL station partner of the month?

My first reaction was, “What did we do that was so special? It’s EVAN who is exceptional!”  Everybody’s experience with an intern should be so easy. Evan came to us so well grounded and with so many skills that he needed minimal direction. We literally pointed him in a direction, counseled him a few times and he came back with gold. I’ve worked with professionals who were much harder to manage for a much less memorable result!

In your opinion, why is it important for public media stations to work with young public media professional like those who participate in SRL?

Student Reporting Labs helps reinforce the message that story really does matter and just because the technology of video is so much easier these days, story has to come first.  The program exposes the station to amazing young people – like our SRL fellows Evan, Annie Collick and Keenan Penn – who already love working in video but come at it with different eyes than ours. Finally, it is energizing to be around them; for them, this is still a passion that hasn’t yet become “a job” and it helps us all remember why we love working in public media.