Lights, Camera, News!

Indian Hill School District Launches Student Ambassadors Newscast

By Mary Casey-Sturk

In late August, the Indian Hill School District launched a new way to communicate, turning the microphones over to their students. The debut of the IH Student Ambassadors newscast, which was released with the digital beBRAVE District newsletter and is also shared across the District’s social media channels, features students from Indian Hill Primary School through Indian Hill High School. 

Student-leaders introduced themselves during the premier newscast, and they are the ones who continue to broadcast news stories from their respective school buildings for a total of 19 episodes this school year.

 “Our students are ready to lead now,” said Indian Hill CEO/Superintendent Kirk Koennecke, who anchors the show for all episodes along with Campus Experience Coordinator Lateef Johnson. “We believe striving for professional communications – which, in this case, includes the ability to articulate their classroom learning, conduct interviews, and present both on-camera and in-person – are integral lessons for holistic leadership development for our Braves; this is not only an investment in their futures, but also a way to share our very real-world learning with our entire community. We couldn’t be more excited.” 

Students were selected by faculty and staff members from each building in August. In addition to producing the biweekly newscast, IH Student Ambassadors will work with building administration to help conduct in-person tours, including participation in a national educational conference being hosted by the Indian Hill School District in partnership with AASA, The School Superintendents Association held in October. 

“This is a pilot program for the district that will continue to expand over time,” said Director of K-12 Leadership and Career Development Jeff Damadeo. “We are already looking for additional leadership development opportunities to benefit these outstanding student-leaders, and we can’t wait to see how the program grows and evolves.”

Inspired upon hearing about this program, Local 12 News anchor Sydney Hawkins joined the team as a celebrity guest host. She was excited to learn of this new venture and offered to come and be a mentor for the day! 

Hawkins shared, “Like any other trade students sign up for in school, student journalism is vital in helping children, teens and young adults find their voices. Journalism requires research, dialogue, making phone calls, sending emails, and overall professionalism. It requires inquisitiveness. It requires putting oneself out there and often receiving rejection. It requires persistence and confidence. All of which are things that make up what life looks like after school.”  

Indian Hill Living spoke with Indian Hill CEO/Superintendent Kirk Koennecke about this new venture.

IHL: Why is it important to launch this program?  “This is actually embedded within my personal #IHPromise to our Brave Family: As the CEO/Superintendent, I strive to help curate an educational environment that will unleash future genius through pairing student passion with purpose and opportunity. Student Ambassadors as a program is about creating an intentional student-led organization within our Indian Hill School District K-12 campus that develops student-leaders in what could be seen as non-traditional student roles. Communication skills are a vital part of developing as a leader, and this is a unique opportunity for our students to lead our district communications efforts like never before.” Shares Koennecke.

 IHL: What was the selection process for students? Koennecke replies, “The program is a pilot for our district this year, and as such, our communications team worked directly with each of our four building leaders to create the best method of selection based on the ages of the children involved. Having said that, this program is designed to accept all students who could benefit from the leadership experience, and since launching in August, we have already seen our numbers grow, as students are coming forward with interest to join. This is such a celebration for us as a district!”

IHL: Are some of the students interested in a journalism career? “Certainly, some of our students could be interested in pursuing journalism, but the program will not be limited to offering opportunities to be on-camera. Communication skills will be developed in a variety of ways as the program expands. We are very excited to have our Student Ambassadors help host a national AASA educational conference in early October; students will join building leaders to give in-person tours to educators from across the country and talk as subject-matter experts in their learning both inside and outside of our classrooms” Koennecke adds, “As we continue to scale our Student Ambassador program, we will have K-12 leadership development opportunities as part of our Entrepreneurs’ Center.”

IHL: There is great value in knowing what’s happening in one’s community, thus the need for local news, in this case, school news. What are the students discussing in their newscasts? “Our students are really helping to bring our entire community into their buildings to share the very real and unparalleled experience of being Brave! From what it means to be a leader at Indian Hill Primary School, to real-world learning about building communities from nature at Indian Hill Elementary School, to the pillars we study at Indian Hill Middle School, to welcoming HOME all Braves for our Homecoming event at Indian Hill High School – we are capturing the magic of the experience by handing our students the mic. It will be exciting – even for me – to see all they share as the school year unfolds!” shares an enthusiastic Koennecke.

Top to bottom (L to R): Indian Hill CEO/Superintendent Kirk Koennecke (left) anchors the new Indian Hill Student Ambassador newscast every other week, with Sydney Hawkins of Local 12 News. Student Ambassadors from Indian Hill High School, Indian Hill Primary School, Indian Hill Middle School, and Indian Hill Elementary School launched a debut district newscast on Friday, August 30.