Kearney High School Class of 2021 graduate Katie Byrd returned to her old stomping grounds today to talk with Kearney Junior High students about her work in local TV news.

Ms. Byrd was invited to speak to KJH teacher Molly Kuebler's digital media classes. Byrd graduated earlier this year from Northwest Missouri State University, where she focused on broadcast journalism and successfully completed job internships with Fox 4 and KCTV5. She's now a full-time reporter for KCTV5.

Byrd spoke with the students about how she is helping the station develop its emergent streaming broadcast news service. This work includes the challenge of simultaneously using multiple computers and applications to live-stream reports on a variety of platforms, often with very little information up front.

"At the station, we want to reach more people in our community using platforms like TikTok," Byrd explained. "That means I really need to be on top of my game when it comes to emerging tools. It's exciting!"

She encouraged the students to learn how to do as many different types of tasks as possible if they are at all interested in pursuing a career in the media.

After her presentation, the students shared video packages that they are creating for the school's news broadcast, and Byrd provided feedback. Kuebler expressed her gratitude to Byrd for carving out time in her busy schedule to meet with her students.

"It's so important for our students to interact with working professionals so they can get an idea of the scope of skills and mindset that is required to be successful," Kuebler said. "When we walk about Real World Learning, it doesn't get any more real than having someone in the room who does that work."