 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. This is Carol Mon Lee on Education Matters at Think Tech Hawaii. Today we're going to interview our intern Parker Wagner. Hello. Hi. Thank you. On our show today it's called Summer Internship at Think Tech Hawaii. We had a show yesterday also on our summer internship program where we interviewed our other intern, Kendra Austin, who was here from University of Hawaii, West O'ahu. But Parker is a student at Mid-Pacific. Welcome Parker. Oh, thank you for having me. I think it's a really good opportunity for the internship. So thanks again for that. Thank you. I need to tell our audience that this is actually Parker's second summer here with Think Tech. And he interviewed last summer when he was going to eighth grade at Mid-Pacific. This year he's going to be going into freshman year. Right? Congratulations. Yeah. So I think we actually have a picture from last summer and I wanted to show the audience that picture, that group picture that we have. So there's Parker. So I'd like everybody to see how Parker has changed in one year. And Parker's with Jay Fidel, our founder and with Nick Sexton with Cindy, our staff, our floor manager. There's Rob in the back with the headphones, who was control room engineer at the time. And Ian Davidson, who was also with us. And of course, me and my dog, Minky. So that was Parker last summer. And so we're so glad to have you back, Parker. So tell us, what did you do last summer as an intern? Well last summer I did basically a lot of stuff, mainly with camera work. And I also got a hand in doing the teleprompter setup. Mostly my favorite was the control room. I got a little bit of taste of that and it was a very fun learning experience for me. And now I can use that in my later career, moving forward, if I choose to pursue video type stuff. Okay. Specifically, what in the control room interests you? Because we have a tricaster, we have editing equipment, we have sound equipment. Oh, all of it interested me. All of it. So that's where it had to be getting to control all the cameras, because it was very complicated at first, because the buttons didn't have labels. But then what? You have to guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then once I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun to do. And yeah, as I said, it was very fun. Okay. So now I know you have a long time interest and background in your own production, right? So tell us a little bit about what you use, what you have at home. What kind of equipment you have at home and what you've been doing over the past few years? Well, what I have at home is I bought a green screen with the money I saved up by mowing my neighbor's lawn and also helping with my lawn to earn some money. I also... So you have a green screen in your bedroom? Yeah, it's a portable one, so it's kind of like a... It's a bunch of sticks you put together, kind of like a tent where it's like metal tripods and all that. And it will make a green screen frame. And then it comes with a screen. I also bought two LED box lights too. So now I make some running productions on that, giving running tips while using some of the skills I picked up here on how to edit. So running, meaning because you're a runner, right? Is that... Yeah, I love... You do track. Yeah, track. Yeah. All that. So you go out onto the track and film yourself or film other people and then you bring it back and edit it? Yeah, basically that's what I do. I give me and my friend Nick, who's been in the Junior Olympics, we make some running tips videos, kind of like that. And we have a lot of videos unreleased, but we're just waiting for me to have the time to edit it. And I want to make something that I edit with and I'm happy about it before I upload it to the public. Wow, how long have you been doing that? Okay. I recently started it like four months ago, like it's not that long ago. I only have like around two videos uploaded right now because I'm still uploading this giant project I'm going to release like in August. And what's that project about? It's about... It's a 10 minute long video on different running techniques and how to breathe while running. And it also shows like how to make running fun so it's not just torturous to people because I know people want to have fun while doing it and not like die. So it's geared towards students like your age or anybody? I would say that would be my demographic mostly, is towards high schoolers to middle schoolers. I just want to make videos to inform the public on like different running styles while also making it entertaining through video production. And so where can the public watch the two that you've actually already released? Well they can watch it on my YouTube channel ILHRunnerTV. ILHRunnerTV. Yeah, it's in Leek, Hawaii, which is what ILH stands for, Hawaii TV on YouTube. And I post a lot of stuff, even some of my races and some things I eat on season because that's a big thing. Some things you eat on season. Yeah, on season, which is the season that I'm on running, I'll make a short like video showing like different healthy meals you can make with stuff and it'll still make it like taste good. So those are some of the things that I work with when I'm in editing and filming with my camera. Wow. So now after last summer you interned with us and you went back to school. Is there a course or a program at Mid-Pacific that you take that enhances your learning about media production? Oh yeah, definitely. I took this class called Digital Media and Creative Media, which is basically making a broadcast to the actual school about like lunch menus and different sports of the day and all that. And it's very fun. It's nothing like what we have here, it's like crazy. But it's like... Which one's crazy? Here or there? Oh, here, definitely. No, but... We're crazy because we do 35 shows a week. Yeah, and you have like all high-tech stuff at Mid-Pac. It's still, it's like, but like it teaches you the basics and how to edit and basically how to do all kinds of production and it's a good stepping stone to get if you want to pursue that aspiration. Right. So is that a class or a clinic or is it a club? Oh, it's a class. You can also take the club, which is called Puyall Productions, which is the actual club that makes it. I do both. But yeah, they both help with a lot of different stuff, primarily focused on video and stuff like that. Well, last summer, while you were at Think Tech, you got to have get both behind-the-camera experience, right? As you said, working in the control room behind the cameras and setting up and talking with hosts and guests, but you also actually got to interview and sit here where I'm sitting, right? Oh, yeah. Well, let's show our second image, which is a picture of... Can you describe it to our viewers? Well, this is a picture of me interviewing the Chief Justice Rectonwald and primarily we were talking different about his views for the future. I was a little bit nervous, but I was a good learning experience. Now I'm way better. I've been practicing in front of the camera and my channel has been helping me with that. Good. So, like, what are some of the things that do's and don'ts you would tell somebody who's for the first time going to host? What would you say you learned that you could pass on? Well, something that Think Tech has taught me and Jay has been focusing is don't be nervous or try not to be nervous, because if you're not nervous and you're more laid back, it's just like having a one-on-one conversation without the cameras. And he makes it sound super easy, because he's really good at it. Everybody's good at it. But if you're just starting out, it's very hard to ignore the fact that there's, like, three different cameras and, like, hundreds of lights. And viewers out there. Oh, yeah, and viewers watching you that you know is, like, if you put in this room, it'd be, like, hundreds, but... Well, yeah, or even more. And not only that, this is, since it's live stream, we don't edit shows, so that if there is something that maybe you wish were not said or something, we can't. We don't edit out. Yeah. So you learn to be live and spontaneous and go with the flow. Yeah. Yeah, it helps. It helps it. You look back at it and say, oh, I shouldn't have done that. And then at the next time, you can improve it in the next interview. So what would you say you preferred? Do you prefer in front of the cameras or behind the cameras? We know what you like in the control room. But did you like that experience being in front of the cameras? Oh, yeah, I like both of them, first of all. They both helped me. And honestly, being in front of the cameras has really taught me, even in my social life, it helps you make new friends, because you're not afraid of going up to them, because being in the experience of actual cameras, it's like having an audience there. So when you go up to people, you're not afraid to, like, say, oh, hi, my name is. And then make new friends like that. And then being behind the cameras just teaches you a lot more about different styles of video and more you could do with that. It's kind of like an art form. Yes. It's really a good skill to have and to learn. So how about your interest in news items? Has that changed because of Think Tank? Because you remember last year we have, as our audience knows, we have about 30 to 35 shows a week on 35 different topics. And we have so many different areas of conversation. So I was wondering, has that become some area of interest for you? Yeah, it primarily has. And that's actually what caused me to go into Puyallu Productions. I didn't know that they had that until I came to Think Tank. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. And I could put on a production that's not as much budgeted, but it will still get our message out there that we're trying to get to the viewers, which not that many people will see it online, but we show it at our auditorium and people will see it there. So I can see live reactions whether they like to or disliked it. And it's like a thing we do once every week. So you have a school get-together or something and it's shown on a weekly basis? Yeah, it's a school get-together. The entire school? Yeah. I see. Even high schoolers get to see it, but they have a meetup at a different time. And how long is the show that runs? We try to make it short because if it's too long, people will tune out. So we try to make it around five minutes, at least at the longest, and trim it down. Because what we're doing is not getting, trying to educate people, but more just trying to get the message out there just so that they know about it. And what are some of the topics you've covered over the past year? Well, we covered everything from the daily schedule to sports announcements, what kind of clubs there are. So if people are interested in a club, they can watch a Daily Bulletin and then say, oh, that's where our club is. It's in A-1-0-something. And then they can find their club that way. Yeah. OK, great. So tell us a little bit about your track interests and how that has been supplemented with your interest in broadcast media. I know you said that you use the topic of track to actually film. So have you been in track for a long time? Yeah, I've actually been on it for five years, including my renegade track, which I've quit for a while. What's renegade track? Oh, it's a club track team. So I've been on it officially on the Mid-Pak team for two years. And I really enjoy the sport. I recently at Champs placed third and fourth in the 1,503,000. Wow. Now, what is champs? Champs, championships is a championship meet. So you have to qualify for that by getting top three in the qualifiers. Is that by school, or by private schools, or is that? Well, basically, in the trials, there's four heats. Each heat has about 15 runners. They take the top three of those heats, and then the next four best times. And then they go on to the championships. I see. But do you enter by school, or by individually? Your coach enters you. Your coach enters you. I see. That's great. And then I know you're doing some summer work. What are you doing this summer on track? Oh, this summer, I'm going out for cross-country because my coach is skipping me from junior varsity and boosting me up to varsity next year. Wow. Yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah, it is. So I'm just looking to get some training in and not overtrain. So I think next week, I'm going to take it a little bit more lenient and focus more on the internship and making some more videos and editing for my channel so I can get content. But my coach really has been adamant on the fact to not let me overtrain, because that's one of the biggest mistakes people make. OK, well, great. Well, if you just join me, this is Carol Monly on Education Matters. And we're talking about summer internship at Think Tech Hawaii with my guest Parker Wagner, who is going to be a freshman at Mid-Pacific. And this is his second summer at our internship program. So we'll be right back after this short message. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11 AM. Please join us. I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii, not just law, love, people, ideas, history. Please join us for Law Across the Sea. Aloha. Good afternoon. My name is Howard Wig. I am the proud host of Code Green, a program on Think Tech Hawaii. We show at 3 o'clock in the afternoon every other Monday. My guests are specialists both from here and the mainland on energy efficiency, which means you do more for less electricity and you're generally safer and more comfortable while you're keeping dollars in your pocket. Welcome back. This is Carol Monli on Education Matters with my special guest, Parker Wagner, who is going to be a freshman at Mid-Pacific. And he is taking his second summer here as an intern at Think Tech. And we're very happy to have you back, Parker. I'm very happy to be here. So we spent the first segment of this show talking about your last summer's experience, including what areas of interest you specifically wanted to learn about and do and what you actually did, and also about your track work, which is kind of dovetailed into video. Your video, yeah. So let's talk about this summer. What are you thinking? This is your first week. Your third day of your first week, right? And so tell us, what are you hoping to learn this summer at Think Tech? Well, what I want to learn a lot more about is how to talk to people when coming in, because that is a skill that I can take even outside of Think Tech, so how to introduce them, and what to do in this scenario, so what camera to look at, and how to converse with people. Right. You know what's really helpful is when you recognize them, you can call them by their name, make them feel welcome. Not sometimes they're nervous, right? So what would you say to a guest who might be nervous about appearing? I would just tell them. I've interviewed before. It's very nerve-wracking at first. But try to pretend the cameras aren't here, and then picture yourself at a place that you would want to be interviewed at, or where you'd feel comfortable. Right. And I always tell people that time goes by really very fast. Yeah. Yeah. When you're nervous. When you're nervous. Right. OK, so are there any particular technical areas that you want to go into, or that you want to learn about? We're talking about some of this stuff here. Motion graphics editing? Yeah, motion graphics editing. What is that? What it is, in my opinion, motion graphics is the little subtext. Mainly sports channels, you see it all the time. And I think football, and even in track and swimming, they have those who's competing things. And actually, the digital media teacher was actually the motion graphics editor for OC16. No kidding. OK. Yeah, Kevin Takuda. Uh-huh. Yeah. All right. And so you're interested in learning that? Yeah, I'm pretty interested in learning that, because I could play around with it all the time, because I have this idea for my channel once I learn this and get good at it, which may take a while, but I'm willing to put in the work and effort in order to learn this skill. But I want to make the timer bar at the top. And we could do a lot of fun things with that, and have races, and have the timing bar, and all that. Right, right. I think that would look cool. Right, OK. So let's see. Some of the other things that you as an intern would be responsible for are, we take telephone calls. Do you know how that works? Not mainly. That's also another thing I need to learn a lot about, because I'm not really sure if it goes into the thing out there and how all of that works. Right, so we do have a call-in number, which is 3742014. If anybody wants to call in, and we can take calls online. Have you used, you know, we used to do Skype. Oh, yeah. But now we use something else called Zoom. Are you familiar with Zoom? Honestly, I'm not. OK, so that's going to be something you can learn about. Yeah. Do you do that a lot of Skype? Yeah, I have some of my friends on Lopez Island, Washington. They sometimes, FaceTime with me, it's not Skype. But FaceTime is primarily the same thing. Is it? Yeah, it's Face on Face, so that you can see them. And there's a little box icon where you can see yourself. Right. And talking, converse. Right. And let's see, what else are we going to be doing? We're going to be, oh, tell us about our, do you know anything about FileMaker? FinalMaker? FileMaker. No, I don't. OK, so you'll be learning about that. That's our upgraded software program, where we work with our database system, with work with our hosts and guests and our staff, and everybody's interconnected and so in terms of scheduling and setting up shows and doing all sorts of things, it's a real important new addition to Think Tech that you should be learning about, OK? Yeah, you'll enjoy that a lot. How about, we had already talked a little bit about editing, but is there anything more about editing that you think you can be experiencing here? Actually, I think there's a lot I need to learn. And I'm lucky to have some of really good editors, like Rob and Jay. You're right. And they helped me, like, learning stuff that I could use. And even from last time, I've seen a drastic improvement on the content I produce and the content I'm able to even edit for my school. Because of the skills you learned here last summer. And even I impress some of the people, because even some people from my school has YouTube channels up. And sometimes they ask me for help to edit. So then I'll take their videos in and edit for them when I have the time. Right. That's great. And that's based on some of the things you learned here. Yep, exactly. How about the equipment? Do you use your own equipment to edit? Yeah, I have a DSLR camera. Not nothing like these. But it's a very smaller one that I hook up to a tripod in my room, where I basically introduce myself and all that. In front of the green screen, I can put my... And then I basically can just hold on to it. It's not like something I have to load onto my back. It's just I can film what I want to. And it's very convenient. Do you use your telephone to film at all? Yeah, actually I do sometimes. Because if I want to have two angles, I'll have one camera at a starting line and another camera, I'll have a friend hold it. So if me and my friends are doing a fun mile race, another friend would hold it up. So we could switch between angles, kind of like what we're doing here, like switching. Multiple cameras. Yeah, and I really like that aspect of where you can get two different point of views. And what kind of phone do you have? I have an iPhone 6S. Yeah, it's pretty broken, but it still works. The screen? Yeah, the screen. It's kind of cracked. Just a little bit. Well, we had talked about some of the other projects for this summer. And one is to every day you're going to be behind the cameras, learning whether it's the floor manager or the control room or working in our reception room. But we also talked about your opportunity to sit in my seat again to interview. So who should we reveal, our potential special guest? I think we should. Well, I think the potential guest is actually my mom is a pediatrician on the base by Kaneohei. I think it's the MCBH. So she's a colonel. She has the rank of a colonel right now. So I think I'm going to practice my interviewing skills I've learned here and get one-on-one questions. Great. What's your mom's name? Dr. Debbie Wagner. Right, Dr. Debbie Wagner. I think that's a great idea to interview your mom, because what I find is interviewing for me is not a natural, particularly, interest or skill that I have. But I enjoy talking with people whom I know. It becomes much more of a conversation. So I think that's great if you interview your mom. What do you think you'd ask her about? I think I would ask, what ideas do you have for me in the future and what do you want me to pursue, just so I can get an understanding if she approves of the ideas I have, which I have no doubt she wouldn't. But I mean, would, yeah. But just so that she knows and what interests what she have for my future, because I know there's a lot of things she has for me in the future. And I just want to see if some of the stuff I'm interested fits some of that criteria. Oh, that's pretty good. So what do you think long-term you see yourself doing? You're going to finish mid-Pacific. Yeah. And then what? There's a lot of opportunities. And I try to look back at these. You like track as a potential long-term? Yeah, well, I always want to be an Olympic runner. That's my aspiration. An Olympic runner? Yeah. Wow. But I know that won't have, I don't want to be negative. But there's a lot of stiff competition in track. So what I'm hoping for is I want to pursue my video career when I get out of college. Also run NCAA track. But then when I am 28, I want to drop out of NCAA. What's 28? Because that's the age I feel where you're aging and you're done getting better and better. OK. So I think I'm going to drop out of track and pursue my video stuff. OK. And also try my hand in qualifying the Olympics for the marathon. At age 28? Yeah. Oh, I see. So now what about school after mid-Pacific? Where would you like to study that might be able to combine both your track interests and your interests in media? Well, I've been thinking a lot about that. To be honest, even at this age, I want to either pursue in the University of Washington or the University of Oregon because of their scholarship, of Oregon scholarship because of their cross-country team. But they also have a lot of opportunities. I actually researched that. I forget like probably two weeks ago, I was looking into that on the Oregon website, like what kind of stuff I'd be in if I was at Oregon. Yeah, also the UH also has a lot of good opportunities. That is a stepping stone for me to go up. Great. Well, you'll see you have several more weeks here. And then you're going to take a trip this summer with your family, right? Where are you going? Lopez Island, Washington. OK, Washington State. Yeah. That sounds beautiful. Yeah, it is. It's very 2,000 people, so very sparse. OK, well, we just have one minute left, Parker. And would you like to say anything to our camera and to our audience about internships and maybe? Well, Courage, I think if you're interested in something, you should always intern for it because it's a great experience. Even if you're thinking about it, I think you should just go for it because even colleges, also at your resume for doing these kind of stuff, so even if you're thinking about it, like, oh, no, it's a waste of time. And most of my generation rather sit on the couch and do stuff, I think that you should take the opportunity because at the end of the day, you only live once. And you should take these opportunities before you eventually it's over. So that's my message. Thank you so much, Parker. We're so happy to have you back this summer. Thank you. And I look forward to having a wonderful experience together. So this has been Think Tech Hawaii Education Matters with my guest Parker Wagner, who's an incoming rising freshman at Mid-Pacific and an intern at Think Tech Hawaii. And again, if you're interested in interning at Think Tech, we run a free program. We invite private and public schools, high school and college level to contact us. And we would enjoy meeting you and then talking about an internship experience. So on behalf of Think Tech and our staff, thank you so much and aloha.