ABERDEEN, S.D. – On Tuesday mornings at ATEC Academy, students step out of the classroom and into the studio to deliver the news across the school district—and throughout the entire community.
Aberdeen Central’s Eagle Zone has made a name for itself as a program that brings local news to the Aberdeen area—and brings home numerous awards for CHS students.
Most recently, Eagle Zone students received five new Student Production Awards from the Upper Midwest Emmy Foundation at the 2024 awards ceremony in Minneapolis:
· Newscast: Eagle Zone Live, Nov. 30, 2023; Courtney Thorstenson, Jason Lopez Martinez, Hailey Johnson, Braidan Lynn, Joseph Pierce, Delaney Johnson.
· Video Essay: Veterans Day, Emma Pierce.
· Magazine Program: Eagle Zone, March 8, 2023; Summer Ryan, Sam Ryan, Courtney Thorstenson, Jason Lopez Martinez, Will Ewalt, Max Jaime, Joseph Pierce.
· Animation/Graphics/Special Effects: Rhett Burilovich.
· Talent, News or Sports: Courtney Thorstenson.
Eagle Zone students compete within a five-state region that includes large high schools in the Twin Cities, said CHS Teacher Erich Schaffhauser.
“I’m very proud of the kids,” Schaffhauser said. “They work hard. They embrace it.”
The students behind Eagle Zone are all part of Schaffhauser’s Broadcasting and Media Production classes, and the experience provides them numerous hands-on learning opportunities.
“There are a lot of times when students can learn a lot of lessons at a fairly shallow level if they just read about it,” Schaffhauser said. “In this case, they have to build content from scratch. So they are interviewing people, they are researching, they are recording cover video, they’re editing. The final product you see started from scratch, so there’s a lot of hands-on learning. It takes a lot of deep thinking, and it takes a lot of collaboration between students to work together and get this done.”
Through involvement with Eagle Zone, students gain skills such as problem-solving, flexibility, creativity and communication, all of which are beneficial no matter what career they pursue.
“In this ever-evolving job market, you need those traits, and you need to not only have them but develop them and perfect them over time,” Schaffhauser said. “And I think a course like this certainly helps you to do that.”
Some Eagle Zone students do intend to pursue journalism as a career path. That includes former anchor Jason Lopez Martinez, who won a major scholarship to study journalism at USD.
“When I found Eagle Zone, it made me fall in love with journalism and made me feel proud to actually continue on doing journalism next year for college,” he said.
Now a senior, Lopez Martinez said when he first started with Eagle Zone, they recorded in other spaces at CHS, such as the gym mezzanine. This year, they moved into the new studio in the ATEC building, which is better than even some college studios.
He’s proud of the growth that Eagle Zone has experienced. “I’m really proud of what Schaffhauser has been able to do with Eagle Zone, just elevate it and continue on becoming something really big.”
The latest episodes of Eagle Zone can be found at the Aberdeen Public School District website, or the CHS Eagle Zone YouTube channel.
About the Aberdeen Public School District
The Aberdeen Public School District provides a comprehensive educational program to approximately 4,200 students in grades K-12, with a mission of empowering all students to succeed in a changing world. Our students receive the knowledge and skills necessary to reach their potential in a global community through high expectations of academic achievement; diverse educational opportunities; and community involvement in a safe, supportive environment. Learn more at aberdeen.k12.sd.us.