This just in: Grant will help upgrade Crane studio

Anchor Jessica Crawford read Tuesday's news from a Frankenstein version of a teleprompter - one cobbled together from an old camera, monitor and other pieces with duct tape holding a section of it.

"... sponsoring 2008 Cougar Talent Show. Auditions for the talent show are tentatively March 10 and 11 and will be held during X (home) room and after school."

"The graphics kind of went down today, kind of crashed or something," Crawford said later as she watched a tape of the broadcast.

Crawford is a seventh-grade student in Crane Middle School's broadcast media program, which exists not only to keep students updated on campus news but also helps them develop language, reading and writing skills.

Crane's broadcast students face technical problems due to the outdated equipment, but the experience they gain from this class helps them develop real life skills.

And to continue polishing their skills, the Qwest Foundation granted the school $12,242 through Northern Arizona University's GEAR UP program to upgrade their broadcasting studio.

"It will help our jobs run much smoother. We have some technical difficulties so it (will) help)," said Amanda Nelson, 14.

GEAR UP is a six-year, federally funded program that helps promote higher education to eighth-grade students by following the same group from junior high to high school, said Maria Castillo, GEAR UP coordinator.

The money will be used to purchase a new teleprompter, studio cameras, mobile cameras, television sets, projectors and other needed pieces of equipment.

"The equipment stays in the school because it will promote sustainability of the GEAR UP program and other generations. And that's what we want," Castillo said.

The newscasts that last from five to eight minutes are created by a class of seventh- and eighth-graders who rotate doing the different tasks.

Crane's broadcast media program started about eight years ago with equipment that universities and television studios no longer wanted, said Linda Huff, the school's principal.

"We put it together (into) a makeshift studio and over the years it has just evolved into being what it is and it is in bad need of an upgrade. It is still well-pieced together but from it, the kids have done a fabulous job of learning how to broadcast on the spot or record special feature stories," Huff said.

In the process of creating the news segments, the students learn English language fluency and practice their reading, writing and presentation skills, Huff said.

The students are "bettering their language development. A lot of our students are second language learners and so that's something that's very beneficial to them," she said.

Crawford, an aspiring writer and author, did not know how to type on a keyboard before joining the class, the 12-year-old said, adding that it is a skill she figures she'll need for her career.

Hannah Wyatt, 14, said both GEAR UP and broadcast media have helped her prepare for the future because it has opened her eyes to many career opportunities she had not considered before.

Wyatt said public speaking is one of the biggest skills she's developed. "It just makes you a more fluent reader. It's just very enriching, I think it's the best way to describe it."