When COVID-19 keeps Academy students from being able to take field trips to meet with professionals…we bring the professionals to them! Recently, in Nease’s Communications Academy, we hosted a Digital Design and a Wired virtual guest speaker. Jamie Johnson, Digital Relations Officer for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, spoke with students about how to turn a passion for social media and news into a professional career. She shared how she got to her current position, and what her daily duties entail. Jamie also discussed how important it is for students to start monitoring what they’re posting on social media NOW, as it will follow them as they get older, when they apply to college and when they start searching for a job. She offered real-world examples of social media mistakes which cost some students opportunities in college and beyond. Jamie also discussed how the skills and software the students are learning in their Digital Design classes will help make them more competitive candidates in the job market. We thank Jamie Johnson, a member of our Communications Academy Advisory Board, for spending her morning with our students!
In one of our Wired classes, ActionNewsJax Anchor John Bachman joined us for a period to share his experiences in the world of broadcast news. John explained his news background, how he came to Jacksonville, and what his daily schedule looks like as an anchor. He discussed the changing news landscape, and the importance of a strong social media presence when reporting. John also took the class on a virtual tour of the newsroom, where they got to see producers, assignment editors, webmasters, and anchors working on that day’s newscasts. Then, he walked the students into ActionNewsJax’s control room and finally, into the studio, where they got to see a first-person perspective sitting in John’s chair at the anchor desk. It was an awesome virtual guest speaker event which became a virtual field trip! Many thanks to John Bachman for taking time out of his workday to show our Wired students around!
