ANDERSON — Anderson High School has officially launched TribeCast News and podcast with the help of funding through the $41 million capital investments referendum that ACS received in 2018.
Funds from the referendum went to designing a room with a green screen, cameras, boom mics and other necessities needed to create podcasts and newscasts.
Joshua Dillard, Project Lead the Way engineering and computer science department chair, said that this is something he has wanted to make happen for a few years.
Dillard oversees TribeCast News with Larissa Scott, data coach at AHS. Together the pair host the TribeCast podcast, though they will eventually turn to students to run it.
“We’re trying to figure out this (logistics) part first,” Dillard said.
The weekly podcast features interviews with various AHS community members. The TribeCast podcast is available on the Anchor app, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
TribeCast News, which is available on YouTube, is an alternative source of the school’s morning announcements, as it offers a visual component. Teachers may play it for their classes.
“There’s a lot of people who can’t hear the announcements or just don’t arrive to school on time to hear announcements,” said Ricky Wong, TribeCast News member and senior class president.
Aside from providing school announcements, the newscast has also featured interviews with student athletes and popular Tik Tok dance tutorials, though many more fun activities and community partnerships are planned for future newscasts.
According to both Dillard and Scott, the students involved have gone above and beyond for this program.
“The very first episode of the news was a little rough, but every single day they have put in the effort to make it better,” Scott said.
For now, the program does not have a dedicated class period, so students meet whenever they can to record episodes.
“A lot of the kids give up their lunchtime because we don’t have a common time where they can meet,” Scott said.
The current group of students consists of mainly juniors, but there are some sophomores and seniors.
“We have a longevity within the program, and they’ll be able to train other people as they come in,” Scott said.
For now, TribeCast is not accepting other students, though Dillard hopes to get more students involved eventually.
“It’s nothing personal against any other student, it’s mainly just trying to get our footing.”
Hannah Whipple, TribeCast News member and senior class vice president, enjoys being a part of the program because film has always been something that has interested her.
“I hope it expands, and I hope it becomes a class,” she said. “I enjoy seeing the growth of it (TribeCast News).”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin on February 7, 2022.