 Hi, my name is Pete Kiyomani-Von, I'm the Community Development Manager with the Community Development and Economic Office with the City of Burlington. I am here with three individuals who are going through our My Brother's Keeper Internship Program in partnership with Channel 17 Town Meeting. And we're here to talk about their experience in the videotography internship program. So we have three students here that have been filming NPA meetings. They've been filming community meetings and also interviewing people in the community. And we have our first person here. You want to introduce yourself? Hi, my name is Boniface. I go to Burlington High School. I'm a senior this year. And I'm Germain. I also go to Burlington High School and I'm also going to be a senior this year. And I'm Olivier. And I also go to Burlington High School, I'm a senior. So can you tell me, all of you, what interested you in this internship, particularly with filming? And also how long have you been in this program? What interested me to join this program was how to, I wanted to learn and gain skill knowledge with working with comrades. And how I go into this program was through ES Program, which was about how to develop in jobs and careers and stuff like that. And I enjoy this program because I think I've had an interest in filming for pretty much my entire life. So when I heard that about this program, I immediately wanted to do it. And I've been in it for almost three years now. Yeah, what made me interest during this program was also, yeah, I was interested in filming too. And when I saw my friend joining that, and they're like, yeah, I want to do that. And this is like my second year, I think, yeah. Oh, great. So how about some of your experiences that you've had when filming? For example, you interviewed some community leaders and you went and talked to some youth. So can you share a little bit about those experiences, what you've learned from them? Well, at first, my first filming interview was pretty difficult. I had technical issues. And as long as the way I kept learning and, yeah. Yeah, mostly I happened to be interviewing people. So I think I've learned a lot from that. I'm now mostly on the camera. So I wouldn't say no much yet. But yeah, I learned some skills about how to interview people and how to make people want to talk to you. Yeah, like what Bonnie said, the first, it was kind of hard. I wouldn't keep doing it over and over again. It kind of get used to it, yeah. Great. So I would say that definitely, you know, like learning those skills of like setting up, how to answer and write questions out. What was the process like? How did you prepare for that? Did you get together, come up with the questions before each show? Can one of you talk about that? Well, before the interview, we had to write questions down. And we needed to know what the person we're interviewing, what does he work in, what is his career so that we know what questions to ask, what are the appropriate questions to ask. Yeah. Yeah, that's it pretty much. Was there a favorite show that you did, a favorite like community leader that you interviewed or something that stood out? Yeah. We once interviewed a police chief, I believe he was, and I am kind of interested in that sort of job. So talking to him was really nice to get his knowledge and stuff. Excellent. So yeah, just tell me more a little bit about yourself. So what are some of your favorite things to do besides, you know, videotography? What are your sports that you do or outings? Well for me, I like running. So I do cross country and through the winter, I do skiing cross country again. And I like playing volleyball. I mostly play video games or yeah, that's pretty much it. If I'm not playing video games, I'm just hanging out with friends, stuff like that. Yeah, I play video games and I also like to play soccer, yeah. And what's your plans for after high school? It doesn't have to be a particular college or a place, but what do you see yourself doing in the next couple of years? Well, because I'm graduating next year. I haven't thought really through like that, but what I want to do after I finish high school is go to college by somewhere near but not in Ballington. Probably end up in the police academy a year from now. Yeah, after high school, yeah, I think I'll try to go to college maybe somewhere near by, maybe you here. Yeah. So did any of this, the internship, did it affect your decision where you are now? Then like when you first started, has it helped like formulate any new ideas of what you can do? Well, at first, we only knew like a camera, it's just a camera set that you can just move back and forth. But now we know that there is a lot of inputs and wires that needs to be connected in order for the camera to work. So I would say we gained most, a lot of knowledge. Yeah, yeah, for sure, I agree with him. Before we got into this, we didn't know much about interviewing and the camera work and even editing, but now afterwards we know a little bit of each part of that and it could be something that we can do to get better potential to be a career, but I'm not sure. Yeah, I like what you mean I said, yeah, we learn more, maybe we might be a career thing, I don't know. Yeah, there's a lot of transferable skills, even if you don't go into the videography or TV, you learn skills around management, skills about public speaking and also organizing meetings. So, yeah, Livia, you did one show where you went out in the community and interviewed people on the importance of voting, like why they vote. Did you learn anything particular on that, like about the voting process or why people vote? Yeah, I think it was kind of interesting, like just to see how people, how they're sharing what they, they type of voting, yeah, kind of good. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. How about the two that you did on interviewing the youth and public safety? Was there things that you learned about your own peers on what they thought about safety and school? Yes, so we got, like to say, back in the beginning of the pandemic when all the stuff was going on, we were talking to these people about police safety in high schools and we got to see everybody's perspective of that and we agree with some, we disagree with some, it was nice to see that. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, that reminds me too of doing everything remote. How was that, like with trying to get together remote and get the speakers together and what was the difficulty or some of the challenges with that? It was difficult because, you know, you had to do it on your own computer, on your own device, which is pretty intense. You think you're going to join the meeting earlier, but afterwards you join it, like five minutes late because your phone isn't working, all your internet isn't working because a lot of people are working on it. Yeah, it was difficult for most part just because of, you know, everything's, it's not in person, it was on the internet, so like you might ask somebody a question and like the way the answer, you can't really hear them or they might be having technical issues, so you have to stop the meeting and like have them rejoin. Yeah, it's kind of, yeah, it's very difficult, especially like me, I have a big family at home, but to find a quiet place is kind of hard, yeah. Yeah, yeah, speaking of family, how was it balancing out in internship school? I know something you did after school, like sports, and then taking an internship too, it's, that's a lot to juggle. Can you share about how you managed it? Well, time management, I, before this program, I wasn't working on time management that well, but when I started this program, I wanted how I, I found out a way to balance my time, so I can do all things that I like or wanted to do at the same time, which worked out greatly because communication was good with my peers. Yeah, I grew up born and said, yeah, the communication is perfect. Yeah, I don't know, I don't do much, like besides school, like I'm not into sports or anything like that, so it was a little bit easier for me because I'm mostly free after school. Yeah, yeah, definitely, I think that even if you're not doing a lot, it's still taking on additional responsibility and learning about meeting, meeting people beyond the school and, you know, like beyond like your, your team here, but other community members and folks that you're, you're working with to not only interview but also editing. I imagine you have to meet with the, the Channel 17 crew to learn how to edit. So can you talk a little bit about that? How like, did you ever have experience with technical editing or like, what did you learn about that? So editing has been another one of my interests for pretty much my lifetime and when I, before I got into this program, I actually had an editing class at BTC, which helped me a lot. So when I got into this, it was easier to edit the videos that we make and because I had a class before it. So I was pretty used to that. I wouldn't say I had that much experience with editing. I was still adjusting to new technologies and stuff. So yeah, it worked out greatly. Like when he said, yeah, I actually thought it was, I didn't have that much experience. Actually, the editing was easier, but it was actually hard. But when I get to start working here, editing, I got to know more stuff. Yeah. And tell me a little bit about Burlington. Did you learn more about the city that you lived in? Is there anything that is, that you didn't know before this? Because you, you filmed a lot of community meetings too. And I know you probably heard a lot of projects and just information there. So yeah, yeah, most of the time we get stuck to like, most of like, group leaders that groups that are in the city and like the people that are in the city pretty much. And yeah, we just got to hear from them. I'll say a few new things that we didn't know before, which is good. And a couple of things that we already knew. Right. Yeah. Yeah. How people can engage. There's different ways that you can go and get your voice heard. For sure. Yeah. Sure. So yeah, I would say in just in thinking about the benefits of internship in general, or this one particular in getting the word out about like videography internship, what advice would you give to someone or your, your younger students that are, are like, interested in internships? Like, what would you say about it? And how would you be a mentor? I would say this is a nice, it's a good opportunity because after you finish high school, it will be hard to get. So it's better to start earlier to just search for a career. Yeah. I would advise anybody that is interested in editing or filming or who has come to with talking to random people on the streets to join because you get to learn all of that from this program. Yeah. If you're interested in like video editing and stuff like that. And also, like if you're in high school, don't have anything to do. If you try to do different programs for your career, yeah, can help you with your college stuff. Yeah. Great. So school's going to get back soon. What are you all going to do with the last week or so? Oh boy. Prepare for school back or just like you have any plans of like last summer fun activities? Nothing really. I haven't really thought about it. I didn't realize how soon he was going to start till now he's kicking in. Yeah. Yeah. Summer is really quick and it sneaks up for you the fall before you know it. So that's all the questions I have unless you all have any last words you want to say to the people. Words of inspiration or like last thoughts of from a young person like what people could do to help young people achieve their goals in career and in college pathways. So I think that definitely you all are the next generation you know to really lead us and to develop new opportunities and new ways to be. So any last thoughts of how we can support young people? I don't really know but I'm just going to say to anybody that like doesn't have that many knowledge on like how people you know like like in the government way like this would be a good program to learn about that because you get stuck with most of them. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There's definitely a lot of civic engagement components and community development leaders that you've met that are making like big decisions and it's great that you all got to get connected to that. So yeah thank you so much for watching with us and thank you for Channel 17 for supporting these young men too in achieving their experience and goals. So with that we're signing out. Thank you.