Every Friday night the Jungle lights up as fans pack the stands to watch Louisa football. This year the brand new Jungletron was added to the stadium to replace the scoreboard and level up the atmosphere as the team trudges through the season. The Jungletron is a large screen used at football games to display the score, instant replays, or any special video messages. Behind the Jungletron is a group of students who work hard to bring entertainment to the fans. 

   After enrolling in the TV and Media Productions class taught by Kenneth Killinski, students received an email pertaining to an internship opportunity. Those who were interested had to apply and interview for the position. 

   Seven students were hired as interns including Clay Blue, Davis Pruden, Whitney Payne, Jacob Capozella, Ava Payton-Gardner, Brayden Jones and Emily Gillespie.

   Each student has a specific job like recording the game or filming interactions in the crowd. Pruden, for example, stands and films the game while Blue moves around with a wireless camera to catch the crowd moments. Gillespie’s job is a little different than the others. 

   “I am the director,” Gillespie said. “I’m in the trailer, so during the games I switch between the camera angles.”

   As each intern is recording different parts of the game, Gillespie decides what should be shown on the Jungletron. On a few occasions, there were technical issues that caused lots of difficulties. 

   “The machines would mess up so we had to figure out how to fix them an hour before the game,” Capozella said. “It’s really stressful because you don’t know what’s going to happen. When things go wrong, you just have to work as a team and do your best to make things right.”

   The interns not only work during the football games, but they also spend time preparing for the games. They spend time creating hype videos that contain clips of people throughout the school. Making those videos can be very time consuming as they have to record all of the clips and later edit them. 

   Now that football is over the interns hope to continue covering other sporting events. They also plan to stay available for any school related events that need coverage.

   This opportunity has allowed the interns to think more about their future career. Before going into this experience, Blue was unaware of what type of career he wanted. 

   “I’m more interested in media now,” Blue said.

   Other interns like Pruden already knew what they wanted to focus their career on. This internship only acted as a step closer to their dreams. 

   “I knew I wanted to go into film,” Pruden said. “Just getting behind a camera is very beneficial.” 

   These important decisions become much easier with a teacher like Kilinski. 

   “Every time a student gets that eureka moment and really gets into the program and excels, I feel very proud,” Killinski said. “This year has been phenomenal and I am very excited to see what and how the students have learned and grown. I mean that for all of my students, not just the interns.”