Schools
Live From Cosumnes Oaks High
Tori Winslow, a junior at Cosumnes Oaks High School, directs the school's on-campus news show, Wolfpack TV.
Name: Tori Winslow
Age: 17
School: Cosumnes Oaks High School
Accomplishment: Director of Wolfpack TV, the on-campus TV production at Cosumnes Oaks
Key to awesomeness: The ability to lead a team of students to work together under pressure
Take a breath. Think back to high school. Reflect on those oral reports in front of the class. The nerves. The stress. Now, imagine doing a live presentation for the entire high school.
Tori Winslow, the director of Wolfpack TV at Cosumnes Oaks High School, remembers the first time that her production went live in classrooms throughout campus.
“The first show we were going to do, we were all so nervous,” the Cosumnes Oaks junior recalled. “We were all shaking before, thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to be live.’”
But thanks to the leadership of Winslow, along with fellow junior and show producer Nick Gordon, the first live show was a success. The 15- to 20-minute show now goes live across campus every Thursday.
“Sometimes things go wrong and there are problems, but as long as everyone puts in their best effort and tries their best, we end up having a great show,” Winslow said.
Wolfpack TV, still in its first year, features events on campus, profiles of fellow students, sports, campus trends and more. It began as a recorded show in the first half of the school year before transitioning after Christmas break into a live broadcast.
Currently, 26 students are part of the broadcasting program that meets every school day morning during “zero period” at 7 a.m., an hour before school begins. Next year, the club will become an actual class.
The production studio at Cosumnes Oaks is outfitted with three cameras, Teleprompters, a green screen backdrop, graphics computers and more. Winslow works together with Gordon to lead each show, deciding on story ideas, helping fellow students write scripts, directing cameras and more.
She first got a taste of video work in the seventh grade, when she began winning Student Educational Video Awards from the Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium.
So is the high school junior on her way to a future in broadcasting?
“I have thought about it and I am not sure that it is exactly what I want to do,” Winslow said. “I think I might want to do something in biology.”
