Dos Pueblos High School’s DPNews traveled to Tampa, Florida, last week for the Student Television Network national convention. For three days, students competed in a variety of contests, creating 30-second to eight-minute videos. Each year, STN attracts over 3,000 students from more than 200 schools nationwide.
“Throughout the years, it has been a way for us to grow and learn about what can be done and what other schools are doing,” said DPHS Media Director John Dent. “You don’t really know what’s going on unless you reach out, unless you explore other things. Before there was online streaming or anything, [STN] was a way for us to understand what the competition looks like and what other people are doing.”
Micah Barnhart (12), who placed first in the individuals category, also traveled to STN last year. He described his goals and ambitions this year as different from last year’s.
“I felt like it was a little more stressful this year, because I also felt pressure on me to win again, because Tyler and I were fortunate enough to win last year for our individual competition,” Barnhart said. “Mr. Caines kind of put the pressure on us to not slack off, to not let our egos get in the way of our work. You’re not a winner until you win again.”
Townes Widger (11) described a shift in team dynamics this year, saying they were able to become more focused.
“We just had a really fun time working super hard every single day, waking up early and planning and shooting,” Widger said. “It just felt very accomplished.”
Over the STN weekend, DPNews won a total of 10 awards, including four gold medals. Dent said that the team’s unique approaches helped them succeed in competitions, noting the win in the man-on-the-street contest, where students created a competition within their video.
“So two juniors and two seniors decided to do [the vertical man-on-the-street contest] this year, and they took it in a completely different direction,” Dent said. “I think that the reason why they won first place and defended the title was because they took it in a completely different direction.”
As the DPNews team returned to DPHS, the students expressed excitement for upcoming efforts.
“It was a very emotional experience across the board,” Widger said. “I think we all just became stronger as a team. I think we gained a lot of confidence because … this was the most awards we’ve ever earned in the year. It gave us a lot of momentum and motivation going into competitions in the future.”
Looking forward, DPNews students hope to use lessons learned at STN to improve and continue delivering quality content to DPHS students.
“I don’t want to sacrifice the daily show that people are watching in classrooms,” Dent said. “I want to make sure that we’re keeping that high level, quality broadcast that’s going out to the school every day.”
