Six select students of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, recently spent an intensive week honing their public radio skills. NPR's Next Generation "Boot Camp" provides the students with an opportunity to work one-on-one with professionals from NPR and public radio stations around the country to develop multimedia content. Students were selected through an application process.
In addition to hosting the week-long boot camp in May, the Reynolds School also provided mentors, including Vanessa Vancour, coordinator of the Nevada Media Alliance, and Nico Colombant, a radio broadcast class instructor. Vancour and Colombant discussed the program and the student work with David Stipech on KUNR's Beyond the Headlines (August 1, 2014).
Students conceive, develop, report, write, edit and produce multimedia segments for broadcast and online distribution, according to information from the Reynold's School.
“This is a remarkable opportunity for Reynolds School students to work one-on-one with public media professionals, and to get paid doing it,” Reynolds School Dean Al Stavitsky said. Stavitsky worked with Doug Mitchell, who directs the Next Generation training program for NPR, to bring the program to Nevada.
“NPR likes supporting this program because it allows us to discover young talent,” Mitchell said. “The project gives NPR professionals a chance to see if students have what it takes to do the work and allows NPR to build a pipeline of new professionals who understand the NPR way of storytelling.”
Hear the full audio of this year's student work by visiting the website: nextgenerationradionevada.wordpress.com.