|
Germantown High School's nationally and internationally recognized television students and teachers will participate in a unique television exchange program with their newest partner school, Wilhelm-von-Humboldt. The school has 600 pupils and 45 faculty members. Wilhelm-von-Humboldt is located in the town of Ludwigshafen (on the Rhine) in the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. The town is the home of the global chemical company, BASF.
In January, thirty students and faculty from Wilhelm-von-Humboldt will travel to Germantown to begin the exchange. While in Germantown the students will live in homes with their Germantown student hosts and attend classes at Germantown High School. A series of specially designed workshops will be conducted that will culminate in the production of a thirty minute television program to be jointly produced by the two sets of students at the end of the two week period. Faculty members who will accompany the group are Wilhelm-von-Humboldt Principal Wolfgang Vetter and his wife Liebgard, and faculty members and co-directors of the television station Karl-Ludwig Kemen and Dr. Gerhard Laubsher.
Besides the daily work spent on the project, the German students will have an opportunity to see Memphis and the surrounding area. The group will video tape much of their sightseeing outings in order to use the material in their final television show. Plans call for the group to see a Grizzlies game, attend a Broadway show at the Orpheum Theatre, visit the National Civil Rights Museum and of course tour Graceland. Several receptions for the students will be held including one at the Germantown's City Hall. The students will be recognized by the Mayor and the Board of Alderman.
In June of 2005, the Germantown television students and teachers will fly to Germany and spend two weeks with their new German friends. Accompanying the group to spearhead this component of the project will be David Hershey, a seven-time Emmy award winning producer who is a former graduate of Germantown High School and the 1987 General Manager of GHS-TV. Mr. Hershey will assist the group in creating a similar project and itinerary like the one developed in Germantown. Dr. Lonnie Harris, principal of Germantown High School, GHS-TV Executive Producer E. Frank Bluestein and Supervising Producer Allison Rogers will lead the group. Mr. Hershey will joined by his wife Lori, an independent television producer and editor.
Besides the obvious student to student contact and the joint television productions, the overriding goal of the project is to help promote tolerance, understanding, and friendship through media and the arts. Both schools and their teachers view this exchange as an opportunity to break down barriers and to foster a new level of awareness between the individuals involved
Funding and support for the project is being provided by the Germantown Fine Arts Foundation, Poplar Pike Arts Guild, Germantown Arts Alliance, Germantown High School, Germantown High School Department of Fine Arts, Germantown Sister City Foundation and private donations.
The two schools and students both share many similar characteristics. Background information on the television programs of each school is as follows:
Wilhelm-von-Humboldt's television studio was founded in the early eighties by Karl-Ludwig Kemen, who played a pioneering role in the establishment of media projects both at the school and throughout the region. The school studio produces an hour-long magazine called "Humboldt-TV" which is broadcast by a local station, the "Offener Kanal" (Open Channel). This magazine show is solely produced by the students themselves, from presentation to directing to camera work and sound mastering. "Humboldt-TV" reports on important events around the school by means of discussions, interviews, videotapes and news. Special event programming and mobile productions are also part of the station's mission. Wilhelm-von-Humboldt is one of the few schools in all of Germany that offers instruction in television production and perhaps the only high school throughout the entire country that has its own dedicated studio facility built within the school.
GHS-TV was also founded in the early 1980's and cablecasts over it own channel. The station produces over 400 hours of programming each month and serves as the community television outlet for the entire city of Germantown. The studio is completely student-centered and produces a variety of programming year round. A daily morning news show entitled Wake-Up Germantown features community and school news as well as sports and weather. Other shows include a weekly talk show Crosstalk, hosted by a student interviewer and Cable Quiz, a weekly student academic contest. The station also produces monthly shows on a variety of topics that feature adult community hosts. Additionally, students produce segments for the local PBS and NBC affiliates and help create promotional packages and informational videos for the school system. Finally, the students cablecast live weekly Board of Mayor and Alderman meetings from City Hall. Graduates of the GHS-TV program are now producers, directors, anchors, reporters, and business managers in major television markets all over the country.
|
