SRL Station Success: September 2017

Amy Burkett, General Manager for PBS Charlotte, standing with her colleagues and SRL mentors at PBS Charlotte in North Carolina. They will be working with several new Labs in Charlotte schools. 

SRL is partnering with WTVI PBS Charlotte for the first time this year to support three new dynamic Labs in North Carolina: Independence High school, Garinger High School and Forestview High School.  PBS Charlotte reaches over one million households in the piedmont region of North Carolina and we couldn’t be more excited about connecting the station’s talented team to local students who will be producing stories through their mentorship and guidance. We checked in with Amy Burkett, PBS Charlotte’s General Manager, to ask her what SRL means to her station and community.

When did your station first become a part of SRL?

PBS Charlotte is really excited to be involved in SRL for the first time this year.  We just learned about the program this summer and are thrilled to be mentoring students at three different schools across our area.

How has the Student Reporting Labs program advanced your station’s mission?

SRL is completely aligned with our mission to serve our community through educating, inspiring and entertaining residents across the Charlotte region.

Why is it important to help build the next generation of public media producers and participants?

Our team at PBS Charlotte is driven to share our expertise in journalism with the next generation and SRL is a perfect way to connect and share our experience and passion with students.  The world of journalism has dramatically changed in the nearly 30 years I’ve been in the business and unfortunately not for the better.  As the general manager who was a reporter first in my career, I’ve made this a priority for our station.  We have a great team of solid journalists with varied backgrounds the students should be able to relate and be encouraged by our paths to what we believe is the best form of journalism here at public media.

If we all had limitless resources, how could we make the Student Reporting Labs program in your community even stronger?

OH if we had endless resources, we’d implement SRLs in EVERY high school.  At another PBS station, I had created a high school summer camp called PBS Production U. I’d love nothing more than to be able to touch thousands of local students with that two week experience empowering teens to create their own newscast and individual “I have a dream” speeches.