On
the air in old D.C.STACY AS she would have looked had she visited the Jefferson Monument.
By STACY PUZO
Surprisingly enough, not all interns go to Washington with the purpose of
catching President Clinton with his pants down, then selling the movie rights
for millions of dollars.
(Sorry, bad joke.) As proof, let me tell you what I did as an intern in
our nations capital.
On April 15, sleepy eyed and well packed, I boarded a little Southwest airplane,
(fact: Southwest is rated all around as the No. 1 airline. Lucky me.) at
Cleveland Airport with a group of equally tired and excited interns and
two not so excited adults.
We were on our way to Washington to represent PRYME. PRYME, the Partnership
for Regional Youth Media Empowerment, is a part of the United Way in Cleveland
and is housed in the Big Brothers Big Sisters offices in the Playhouse Square
complex in Cleveland. The program provides for teen interns to produce radio
talk shows on WCLV, 95.5, Cleveland and Akron, every Sunday at 9 p.m. The
name of the show is "Our World," and the topics are chosen by
the teens who then collect all the information and interviews that are needed.
They then add music, edit, mix and air their shows. This a non-profit organization
that is funded by, among others, the UCC and the Gund Foundation.
OK, so anyway, we were on our way to Washington to visit WAMU, American
University's own radio station, National Public Radio (NPR) and Roosevelt
High School. In all there were 14 in the group and boy were we excited.
We spent our first day getting settled into the hotel (which was really
nice I might add) and the rest of the day was spent at the Newseum, that's
right, the museum of NEWS! (How clever.) This is a brand new museum in D.C.
and it features many interesting exhibits. It's a self-guided tour that
takes you through the history of news journalism.
One attraction is a smaller version of the Great Lakes Science Center's
OMNIMAX theater. Every 30 minutes or so, a short movie is shown that presents
the highlights on the timeline of news events in history and if I had not
been so tired from getting up at 5 a.m. to get to the airport, it would
have been inspiring.
From there, you can roam about the museum and see its many displays, or
if you want, you can make a tape of your very own newscast and take it home,
for a small fee, of course. My favorite part of the Newseum was Freedom
Park. This was an outside exhibit that presented a few facts, historical
points and important movements in history.
There were benches to sit on and lots of sun and one of the exhibits was
actually a very large portion of the former Berlin Wall.
Our second day in D.C. was spent partly at American University's own radio
station, WAMU. There we watched a live call in show called "Public
Interest," which was hosted by Frank Stasio. The show presents a guest,
usually a novelist or author, who is interviewed by Stasio and then calls
are taken on the subject that is presented by the author.
Afterward, we met with the host and discussed the aspects of a live show
and what decisions the host has to make about rowdy, trouble-making and
insulting callers. The mechanics of a live radio show are very interesting
and it's not what you would picture while you sit and listen in your car
or at home.
After our observation at WAMU, we all walked to Georgetown for two hours
of heavy-duty tourist shopping. This may have been the best part of the
trip, had our hotel not have had room service!
On Friday, we joined an honors English class at Roosevelt High School in
the city. With the help of Frank Stasio, these students are working to begin
a program similar to PRYME. We broke up into groups and did exercises that
are meant to improve your speaking and communications skills.
The students there were so nice, and two of them were from South Africa,
so we learned a little bit about their culture, too. It's always interesting
to meet new people!
In the afternoon, we packed back into our rent-a-van, and went to NPR, where
different groups were allowed to observe interviews being done in preparation
for upcoming shows. After lunch in Chinatown and a quick nap, we sat in
on the live airing of "All Things Considered," NPR's drive-time
news program.
Throughout the day I was allowed to interview various producers, editors,
technicians and hosts, for our own show back in Cleveland.
STACY VISITS Abe Lincoln.
Too tired to enjoy our last night in Washington, we all crashed at the
hotel. Saturday morning it was all fun and games as it took all 14 of us
to cram our luggage and ourselves back into the 12-person van. At the airport,
we did what most people do at airports, we waited...and waited...and waited.
Due to a miscalculation on our departure time, we had an extra two hours
to kill. Everybody was glad to be in the air once we did leave, though.
And so was I, until I spilt my complementary Sprite all over my lap, and
then I had to wait for the seat-belt light to go off so that I could stand
up and dry myself off. But hey, all I could do was laugh as I met my parents
at the gate, looking like I had wet myself during the flight. Not to mention
the remnants of milkshake that still graced my shirt from an earlier spill
at lunch. Like I said, we were really tired, and well, I'm really not all
that coordinated to begin with.
STACY AT the White House, but don't worry, Bill
wasn't there.
Puzo's film from her trip was unavailable so we improvised. We bet you didn't even notice.
Victoria Sassmannhausen is not only an Edgewoodian junior
but also a talented sandwich artist at Subway who sings a tough rendition
of "All My Life" by Casey and JoJo (Or is that JoJo and Casey?)
Known for her `I judo, you judo' schtick, Vicky is also adept at spotting
cute boys while making their sandwiches.
Too bad she's not as adept at spotting misplaced jalepenos.
Remember the Teen/Currents from March 12? You know, you know, the local
girl, Christy Amidon, who was rushed off to Orlando to appear on Nickelodeon's
"Figure It Out" TV show.
She got to slime celebrities and got cool gifts because she raises llamas.
(Llama isn't a fruit, it's an animal.)
Anyway, you can read the original story and lots of back
Teen/Currents articles on the Beacon's Web site at www.ashtabula/net/StarBeacon.
Oh yeah, and the reason we brought all of this up in the first place: The
show will air on Nickelodeon this Monday at 6 p.m. and again May 30 at 6
p.m.