Station Spotlight | KQED and WPT share SRL success stories

Alyssa Tsagong, Director of Education at Wisconsin Public Television and Robin Mencher, Executive Director of Education at KQED, participated on a panel with Student Reporting Labs at the annual conference for the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) in Washington D.C. They shared how they’re using SRL for youth and community engagement at their stations.

“Once our station’s reporters had the experience of mentoring students, they realized how much they love it,” said Tsagong, whose team of educators and producers are working with six Labs across Wisconsin. Additionally, WPT is launching CLICK, a statewide initiative to expand resources for teachers around media literacy and youth media.

Mencher described how KQED is featuring more young reporters and creating space for more youth voices at her station. “Young people are important people in our community and we can elevate their voices on our platform,” she said.

Two students from Labs in the DC area joined the panelists to share how SRL has impacted their lives. Leah Thomas, a senior at Frederick Douglass High School in Clinton, Maryland explained how learning how to be a reporter challenged her as a student. “Journalism is not easy! You have to remain neutral. You have to remain unbiased.”

Carlos Vega, a senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland spoke about a STEM piece he produced on a beetle infestation at Shenandoah National Park. He explained how learning to talk to new people with different perspectives helped him move out of his comfort zone.