Lion TV students have been working on a story on jobs as part of PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs. The team traveled to Little Rock for an interview at the State Capitol.

“The Jumpstart crew is doing a story on all the jobs that left Searcy a couple of years ago. We came to Little Rock to visit the capitol and scheduled an interview with the governor,” said junior Seth Cleveland. “It was really cool, very educational.”

The governor  scheduled 15 minutes for the team to interview, but it ended up being about 25 minutes of conversation with reporter Dylan Rohr.

“I was really nervous; I’m not going to lie. I mean, I’m in front of the camera every single day, but it’s the governor,” Rohr said. “I did get a little bit nervous, but I think it went pretty well.”

Rohr said it was an honor to interview the governor of the state.


“I don’t think many high school students could say that they got to be part of a journalism class and interview the governor of their state,” said Rohr. “I definitely think it’s a really big experience.”

Cleveland, who was the sound engineer during the interview, was excited the team got the big interview.


“It was an experience, as a student, getting to interview someone high up, such a high ranking guy; that’s really awesome,” said Cleveland.


The team got a chance to meet students from the other Arkansas Student Reporting Lab at Dunbar Middle School. Five eighth graders joined the Lion TV students at the Capitol to observe the interview. After leaving the capitol, the Jumpstart crew headed to Local CBS affiliate KTHV for a tour that was arranged by their mentor from AETN, Tony Brooks.


“We got to watch Sarah Fortner do weather and just walk around to kind of see them get prepared for their noon show,” said senior anchor Lacey Hall. “Dylan and I got to sit at the news desk to see what the anchors do; that was really cool. Not every day does someone get to go tour THV11.”

Senior Megan Bonner was surprised at the size of the newsroom and studio.

“The space that they had to use was really small; everything was kind of in the same room. They had an outdoor set, which is like in the backyard in the middle of everything,” said Bonner. “It very small; that’s kind of unfortunate. I always thought it was really big. It looks big on the TV, but it’s not, at all.”


The trip also included lunch at Community Bakery and coffee and games at Starbucks before heading back to SHS.    (Video Story by Alex Davis)