Mo. journalism students take 10-day tour of United States

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Get off the bus and find a story.

Be it Chicago, Cleveland, New York City, Washington, Virginia Beach, Charlotte or Nashville -- go search for real American stories.

That was the daily challenge for Hillcrest High School's award-winning broadcast journalism team -- HTV -- as they toured the country over spring break last month.

The 19 students -- who typically produce one story a month for the school broadcast magazine -- had to film, edit and produce three stories in a week, in locations far from Springfield.

"It was not the vacation-on-the-beach kind of spring break," said Alex Tabor, a Hillcrest senior. "But it was amazing."

Dave Davis -- or "Coach," as he is known to his students -- launched HTV in 1989 with one video camera. Now, 20 years later, there are 15 major national awards displayed beneath the neon HTV sign in the video studio at Hillcrest.

Wanting to do something special for the 20th anniversary, Davis dreamed up the bus tour -- which was part sightseeing adventure, part "convergence journalism" crash course.

In addition to producing the video stories, the students also blogged and took photos. Different forms of media -- print, video, online -- are converging more and more, Davis said, and he wanted to challenge students with the experience.

"They far surpassed my expectations," Davis said. "There were times where I didn't think they could do it, but they kept pulling it out."

HTV raised about $20,000 through various fundraising events, and corporate and private donations. Apple loaned them 10 MacBook Pro computers, Davis said.

Ultimately, it only cost each student $200 for the 10-day bus tour.

The trip was hard work, said Mehleena Edmonds, student news director for HTV. But, she added, the payoff was big.

"We all gained a lot of confidence in going out and finding a story," Edmonds said.

Reflecting on the process and the lessons learned, 18-year-old Fran Olive attempted to put it into words:

"Everyone truly does have a story. Everything's so much bigger than what we think it is. And we are really lucky to tell their stories."