Hi, I’m Jacob Eberle, a WACS news reporter as well as your news anchor. The 2016-2017 year has gone by quickly, and in a way, I’m sad to say that it is coming to an end. There were lots of stories to cover and I can honestly say I enjoyed the time I spent in this class this year. It wasn’t always the most exciting class for me to partake in, but it definitely had its moments. If anything, it was an enjoyable experience just listening to Mr. Currins roasts and poor jokes. Not to mention some of the new relationships I built with many in this class. I remember scheduling for my senior year, and electing to take Multimedia Production, because broadcasting/reporting is something I may be interested in for my career. More specifically, sports broadcasting. I’m certainly happy that I did, because I got a lot more out of this class than I thought I would.

Actually…before I go any further, let me kill the fake happy tone. This class sucked for awhile. In fact, for the first half of the year, I dreaded coming to class. I wanted to be on the sports reporting team, but instead got put on the marketing department. I feel like the marketing department is where the people who don’t fit another category go. I wasn’t happy for awhile. I often had a bad attitude and took zero pride in anything I did. I didn’t really care. Then, it changed when my buddy Josh Chester gave up his sports anchor role to me. I was excited to take this role on, as I love sports and want my career to be in a similar field. From there, I felt like I bloomed as a student in this class. I started putting more effort into my stories, and even broadcasting the topics I was assigned in a lighter-hearted way. This class then became one of my favorites, and I’m not kidding this time.

I remember my first story I had to edit, it was a story about the Middle School band room renovations. My first story I did by myself (recording, editing, etc.) was with Mr. Ryan about Curriculum Showcase. These stories weren’t my favorite, as mentioned above. I was bored and frankly unenthused about this course. I will say though that these early stories helped me greatly in learning the basics of iMovie. I remember how much I hated Macs coming into this year. I didn’t understand a thing, and I shut down the idea at first. Once I got into it and learned more, I might even say Macs are my favorite now. My editing has vastly improved since the beginning, and I developed decent filming skills, as well as sharpened my writing/typing skills up a bit.

My worst story I made would probably be my story about the Beauty and the Beast costumes. It was going to be a good story, but unfortunately the audio didn’t record and I was left with a broken video. I salvaged what I could and took the 60 that I received. My best though, was when I really hit my prime. I released a story/video about Health tips, and that really took off. I also produced a safety tips video as well as a video on how to battle Senioritis. I started being myself, using my humor that I often held inside myself. I really started to open up, and it paid off as I’ve gotten 100’s on 3 of my 4 final cycles. My one lone non-100 was a 97. I’m proud of how much I improved over this year, and my quality of work definitely displays that.

Aside from the stories, I just want to take a minute to discuss the relationships I built with people in this course. Carly Hopcia and I sat next to each other all year, which I couldn’t ask for a better seat-partner. We usually just roasted Alex or talked about how much we didn’t like school. Everett Gilbert, Gopher Fairbanks, Paige Rzepka, Josh Chester and Conrad Boucher are al people I got closer to after taking this course, which I’m glad that I did, as they’re all great people. Mr. Currin and Mr. Masci were also 2 teachers I got closer with because of all the time I spent in this course. Mr. Currin had the pleasure of seeing me 2 times a day, and he’s become one of my favorite teachers because of it.

The class was rough to begin with for me, but as it went along, I learned to embrace it, work hard, and enjoy the people around me. My advice is this; This class is what you make it. If you put in some effort and try to find your niche, you will definitely enjoy this class. I started off with a poor attitude, and after some time and feeling-out, I decided what I wanted my role to be on this team and it worked out in my favor. My time management could’ve been better, though, but I think I spent my time here well.

Overall, it was a decent experience in this class. It took some time to warm up to, but in the end, it was worth it. My computer skills (filming, editing, typing) as well as my interviewing skills all were further developed this year. It was fun crunching out a story in the final few minutes, while still doing the best I could (I enjoy clutch pressure). I was happy to be a part of a team that tries to bring all the need-to-know information to our community, which is what WACs News does. I learned that if I put decent effort in, I can get decent results out. I was proud of my work this year, and I hope I can further advance my skills in a potential career in this field.