With a student’s future being set up in high school, they can get a jump start doing big things before they graduate. Ovid-Elsie and CCRESA offers classes where students have a chance to try out real jobs, tasks and experiences. For example, a 2023 OE high school graduate went from writing movie reviews in Mr. Puffpaff’s class to working in broadcast news in Lansing after graduating high school. Ruby Sanford took RESA video production in high school, along with journalistic writing, yearbook, and broadcasting announcements.
Sanford likes journalism because she “Likes keeping up with current events and informing people about what is going on in the world.” She is currently a director in broadcasting news at WILX TV Channel 6 and has a passion for video production. Sanford didn’t want to go to college, but got the option to learn on the job when she was hired by the local TV station.
When asked how Mr. Puffpaff pushed her while she was in his classes, she said, “He signed the class up for Nova Science Studio a year ago, where we had to create a video for a national broadcasting organization and it was quite challenging.” The Nova Sience Studio project gave her a sense of what it was like in the real world, producing a video, handling criticism from five or more editors and meeting deadlines. There was pressure in perfecting the video to look visually pleasing and entertaining. Sanford appreciated the challenge that was given to her and felt that it was a quite valuable experience. She also described how she learned about her field and that it was beneficial to her growth and understanding in her career.
Sanford’s favorite thing about journalism writing class was writing movie reviews. After a while in the class she started to learn more about movie production. Throughout the class her love of writing movie reviews and curiosity flourished. She enjoyed learning more about movies and she hopes to produce her own in the future.
When I asked Sanford what she would be doing if she hadn’t had all these opportunities in highschool she said, “I would have gone to college but due to prior knowledge, I was able to get a headstart into my career.” She feels very thankful to have been able to have many opportunities that were given to her in high school and in Puffpaff’s class. She was glad that she got to have those experiences and opportunities at such a young age.