Bering Strait School District students are learning valuable skills while providing parents a chance to witness their children’s performance at activities far from home.

Says student broadcaster Mason Ivanoff, “We film in the middle, so they can see all the moves. What they do. We put it on the internet so other people could watch who never came here. So they can see what their kids are doing.”

The schools of the Bering Strait region can only be accessed by bush airplanes. When students compete at other schools, they must leave their most enthusiastic supporters at home. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the local student broadcast team, parents get front row seats to the action.

Volunteer producer Karen Trop caught up with Mason and Alukka Ivanoff as they gathered video and sound from the local elementary and junior high school wrestling and cheerleading tournament.

The broadcasting team used cameras, smartphones, tablets, routers, and switchers to feed online video streams back home. The students work their way up from small, local events to statewide competitions in Anchorage, like the wildly popular Native Youth Olympics every spring.

Says BSSD Distance Learning Facilitator Patrick Cutler, the main objective is to get the broadcasts out to the public. In the process, however, some students may just consider a career in multimedia after graduation.

Through your support, this positive story of youth in rural Alaska reached a wider audience. You can hear it, yourself, right here at knom.org.

Images above and below: scenes of the BSSD Student Broadcasting team in action in Unalakleet, monitoring and capturing the action of the village’s wrestling/cheerleading tournament.