Jeromie Whalen
Elena Frogameni, center, then a senior at Northampton High School, talks to Lulu Kesin, one of the reporters for “The Transcript,” a weekly student news broadcast, March 26, 2018, in the school’s technology room. FILE PHOTO/JERREY ROBERTS
NORTHAMPTON — Northampton High School’s weekly news program, “The Transcript,” just won a student Emmy. Earlier this month, the show was awarded best magazine program in the 2019 The Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awards.
The show tackles local, national and international news from a student perspective, featuring recurring segments on everything from sports in “Hamped Up” to general school news in “Tell It Like It Is” to cooking with a teacher or staff member in “The Leftovers.”
“I could not believe it,” Lulu Kesin, a senior who reports on the show, recalled thinking when she heard last week that they had won. “I kind of just said, ‘What?!’ a million times and read through the entire list of winners … I was just in awe. I was so proud of everyone that worked on the segment that won.”
The program’s winning episode, released in May of 2018, includes interviews with the crew team and an examination of young women in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — at the high school. Other segments in the same episode explore Afro-Latinidad identity with a reporter who interviewed both her mother, who grew up in the Dominican Republic, and a Mount Holyoke College Spanish professor and dean; and examine barriers undocumented students face in pursuing higher education through the eyes of an anonymous, undocumented student.
In previous years, Elena Frogameni, an NHS graduate and a former senior news producer, won an award for best on-air talent, and the show had received honorable mentions, but never the Best Magazine Program honor, according to Jeromie Whalen, Northampton High School technology teacher and the adviser behind “The Transcript.”
“That episode needs to be, from start to finish, a team effort. That’s why it’s so special to win this,” Whalen said.
The show started three years ago as a morning announcement show, but it evolved to take a more journalistic tone, with pieces reported in the school and greater community mixed with more introspective segments.
Students work on the show in a communications and media production class that Whalen teaches, and they also put in time after school.
“I always tell people, it’s not out of the ordinary to see the kids editing until 6, 7, 8 o’clock at night,” Whalen said. “They just really put a lot of work into it and a lot of thought into it. It becomes something more than a class … Winning an award like this just reassures that all that hard work is paying off.”
Senior News Producer Mikey Diaz agreed. “It means an awful lot,” he said. “I know all the hard work my reporters put into it all week.”
Many teachers show the program in school, but its audience is broader than just NHS. Diaz said he hears feedback on segments from parents and former NHS students.
People often ask Whalen how deeply he is involved in producing the show, he said.
“I just kind of smile — the students don’t let me touch any aspect of it,” Whalen said, adding that he mostly gives journalistic guidance and answers questions. “I have very little involvement in the production of it … This is truly the students’ voice.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com