An inside look at the future of agriculture is the way to describe FFA Live! Inside Convention, the National FFA live convention broadcast. Inside Convention offers an incredible internship opportunity to college students seeking a career in multimedia news production. Each day, reporters create a story to be shared on multiple platforms – the FFA Live! video broadcast, FFA.org and the FFA social media platforms.
This year, students from across the country applied to be FFA Live! reporters. Twelve were selected and spent the week highlighting the news and human interest stories they found at convention. Julie Woodard, senior manager of communication services at National FFA says this program has been a goal for the organization for years to give students a media-based opportunity in agriculture.
“We’re putting the student reporters in front of the camera,” she says. “They’re working with professional cameramen. They’re working with professional videographers. They’re working with professional production managers and directors so that…once they leave convention, they’ve got this nice package of stories that they can show to show for all the things that they’ve done.”
Student reporters were taught by industry professionals, including Emmy Award-winning TV news anchor Nicole Pence Becker.
“I think what’s really cool about this opportunity for our students is that they’ve made the most of it,” she says. “They have said, ‘How can I be a better journalist? How can I be a better communicator? How can I be a better reporter?’ And they’re asking me questions about presentation skills, what to wear on air, how to do my makeup. And I think that’s exciting to see these students taking full advantage of this opportunity.”
Students say what made this opportunity stand out is that it was for those seeking journalism careers – and for those who were not sure if media was the route they wanted to take.
Ashlyn Myers, a student reporter from Indiana, is very involved in campus journalism opportunities but says she learned more from this experience than she thought. “I’m a senior, so I’ve had a ton of experiences in specifically print journalism, so I’m fine with interviewing people and writing and chatting,” she says. “But being in front of a camera like this is really different for me. And just knowing that I was able to do it and I think do it decently well, made me really happy.”
For student reporter Jacob Harper, the opportunity opened his eyes to exploring these types of career options. ”Prior to this internship, I’ve done internships in D.C. and in the Athens (Ga.) area, and they’re all policy based, advocacy based, which is something else I have a lot of passion for as well,” he says. “But having the chance to be on site, writing stories about things that I’m passionate about, FFA, agriculture and the individuals that make up the industry, I think that I’m definitely going to go forward and look into other internships that specifically rely on broadcast and specifically rely on student journalism.”
National FFA first hosted the Inside Convention show last year, and it received an Emmy Award nomination. Students are hopeful this year’s show will receive the same accolades. Either way, Pence Becker is optimistic about the program’s future. “This is the start of something big at National FFA. This show and this opportunity for student reporters is going to continue through the next 100 years of National FFA.”
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