Voris CLC students reach for stars with big-name interviews from new TV studio
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To Cleveland baseball fans, he's part of the heart of a lineup that thrilled Northeast Ohioans in the 1990s.
But to the kids at Voris Community Learning Center on Glenmount Ave. in Firestone Park, he's politely introduced by fourth-grader Diana Montiel as "Mr. Carlos Baerga" — and he's brimming with enthusiasm as the 9-year-old interviews him via video for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Baerga talks about how special it was for him and several Latino teammates to help lead Cleveland to the World Series in 1995 and again in 1997. He notes that his idol, Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente, paved the way for Latino players like himself to succeed in baseball — but also took time off the field to visit with kids in classrooms.
"You have to believe in yourself," he encourages the children; he explains that he's a grandfather now and believes it's important to keep sharing messages of motivation to younger people. With the poise and confidence of a seasoned pro, Diana thanks him for his "inspiring" words.
The entire experience is facilitated through the new television studio at Voris — complete with green screen and high-grade cameras and lighting — in the repurposed conference room next to Principal Jennifer Douglas' office in the Glenmount Avenue school.
"The television studio allows us to carry out daily announcements or showcase different school events," said Ben Effinger, the Voris dean of students. "This technology also goes beyond that and helps us to focus on the school's culture and kids — when kids see photo slideshows from school trips or events they've gone on in these daily announcements, we believe that helps foster a sense of belonging here to this community," Effinger said.
Diana said she was excited to interview Baerga; even though she was born several years after he retired from playing baseball, she said he was someone whom her parents "knew and were fans of, especially my dad."
Makeshift studio springs into action
The conference room where the television studio is located is also utilized for school counseling sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Effinger makes sure that the studio set up is taken down and put back into place once students and faculty are done using the room.
With the pandemic forcing students to turn to remote learning in the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, daily announcements were originally posted to YouTube in a bland format, Effinger said.
"Around October 2020, we started a more personalized video announcement; once we returned to in-person learning in the spring of 2021, we started editing (the daily announcements) into more of the format that we have now," Effinger noted.
Future plans for the television studio include switching the editing software to the Adobe Suite of products such as Adobe Premiere Pro, and partnering with high school students from Akron Public School's College and Career Academies who focus on videography or photography and providing some form of work or internship for these high school students.
Interview series builds bridges between cultures
Besides the daily announcement videos that Effinger creates and edits utilizing WeVideo, Voris CLC students have had the chance to interview different influential members from the community. These segments are added into the daily announcements, where they are broadcast in the classrooms via a SMART board and projector.
Students also have interviewed U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Akron Ward 4 Councilman Russ Neal and Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio.
"We're trying to present people who are successful and how they've gotten there and what has influenced them because it's really important for our kids to see that," Effinger said.
Voris CLC also has utilized the television studio for interviews for Women's History Month, Black History Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month and Arab American Heritage Month.
Speakers for these heritage interviews, including National Hispanic Institute co-founder Gloria de Leon and Forest Hill CDC Principal Juanita Rogers, reflect the cultural diversity of the Voris student population.
"Our student demographic is really diverse, about 10-12% of our students are coming from a home where English isn't spoken; we have seven different languages spoken within our school," Douglas said.
"It's important for us to show our kids examples of people that are coming from some culture like theirs at home, and how they have influenced their community and are examples of successful individuals," she said.
This article is part of the Akron Beacon Journal’s mobile newsroom currently located at the Firestone Park branch library. Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Voris students interview Carlos Baerga, other stars from new TV studio
