If there 麻豆精品 S檚 one thing UCF student Lillian Hern谩ndez Caraballo knows about journalism, it 麻豆精品 S檚 that you can 麻豆精品 S檛 miss a deadline. Her dedication to meeting an important deadline helped her land a coveted spot in the NPR News 麻豆精品 S national training program, NextGenRadio.

UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Nicholson School of Communication and Media and WUCF-TV partnered with Central Florida 麻豆精品 S檚 WMFE 90.7FM to bring the program to Orlando from April 29-May 3. Four of the six students selected to participate in Orlando 麻豆精品 S檚 麻豆精品 S渂oot camp 麻豆精品 S were from UCF: journalism majors Hern谩ndez Caraballo and Monica Sealey;聽interdisciplinary studies major Rhyan Grant; and聽English major Emily Lang. The other two students were from Valencia College and Full Sail University.

NextGenRadio is a week-long 麻豆精品 S減op-up 麻豆精品 S digital journalism training experience. It is designed to give competitively selected participants interested in podcasting, audio storytelling, radio reporting and visual journalism the skills and opportunity to find and produce their own multimedia story. Each selected participant is paired with a professional journalist, and together they find, report and produce a non-narrated story as well as use stills and video to fill out their story.

The theme of the week 麻豆精品 S檚 stories was immigration, specifically 麻豆精品 S淔irst Days in America. 麻豆精品 S

麻豆精品 S淲e are fanning out around Central Florida to locate, capture and tell the stories of immigrants who have arrived here and are making a new life. 麻豆精品 S 麻豆精品 SRick Brunson ’84, associate instructor in the Nicholson School

Rick Brunson ’84, associate instructor in the Nicholson School, represented the university in the partnership and is mentoring one of the students.

麻豆精品 S淲e are fanning out around Central Florida to locate, capture and tell the stories of immigrants who have arrived here and are making a new life, 麻豆精品 S he says. 麻豆精品 S淭he training is highly structured with tutorials in audio reporting, web production, social media production, photography, video and more. Our stories will be richly layered, textured and multimedia in nature. 麻豆精品 S

Hern谩ndez Carabello, a junior, recounts that she had been in a car crash that left her unable to walk during the NextGenRadio application process. When she found out she was a finalist, she had a very short window of time to submit her story proposal.

麻豆精品 S淭he program is intense and I knew the deadline had to be met 麻豆精品 S these are professionals. I had to step it up. 麻豆精品 S 麻豆精品 S Lillian Hern谩ndez Carabello, journalism student

麻豆精品 S淭here I was, no car (just got wrecked), no way to walk or hardly move, no way to get up, put the work into it and get my story. But I wanted it, 麻豆精品 S Hern谩ndez Carabello says. 麻豆精品 S淚 hired a driver and went in my wheelchair and crutches and hobbled around downtown Orlando for hours until I found my story. I was outside a closed Starbucks leaching on their WiFi on my dying laptop trying to submit my pitch in on time. It was due at 11:59 p.m., I got it in at 11:41. The program is intense and I knew the deadline had to be met 麻豆精品 S these are professionals. I had to step it up. And, I guess, accident or not, that is the major challenge of the program, as well as its reward. Learning to be professional, timely, and focused enough to fit into the team and produce a story of the caliber of NPR. 麻豆精品 S

The stories are available to view and hear at聽. They will also air daily May 13-17 on WMFE 90.7FM at 6:44 a.m. and 8:44 a.m.

麻豆精品 S淚 麻豆精品 S檓 pleased and proud to be part of it 麻豆精品 S攁nd more to see our students part of it, 麻豆精品 S says Brunson.