How one student powers Lucerne Valley High’s daily video announcements
Lucerne Valley High School junior Aurora Berletich wears many hats to produce daily video announcements for fellow students.
Aurora plays the role of director, producer, scriptwriter, set and art designer and video editor to produce videos that will be shown the following day.
On one particular day, Aurora attended teacher Cyndy McDonough's class as she summoned the day's talent, a group of students ready to make an announcement.
The students included senior and drama club member Roberta Fernandez, Mariah Levinson, an active member of the class of 2029, along with top Mustang basketball player Anthony Winslow Jr., who will assist Aurora on production.
Behind Lucerne Valley's daily broadcast
The announcers sit next to each other at a small set with a desk, which Aurora has prepared with two photo studio lights, each with soft boxes to soften the normally harsh lighting and a microphone placed in front of them.
"Good morning, Mustangs. Welcome to October," said Roberta. "And today is International Music Day," Mariah said. "So today we're turning up the volume."
The announcers read their lines on an iPad using a teleprompter app that is also recording the video at the same time.
"I'm Roberta Fernandez, your ASB Secretary, and I'm Mariah Levinson, your ASB Treasurer." The two then pause for the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be inserted later in the video.
The duo talks about dressing for Spirit Days, ticket sales and event information for the Middle School Hollywood Dance event.
Next, the two introduce the freshman cabinet and the two Students of the Month, Harlow Johnson and Alex Santillan.
They also announce the day's breakfast: blueberry crumble; sausage, egg and cheese sandwich; bagel with cream cheese; and yogurt with a muffin.
For lunch, students will have a choice of oven-roasted herb chicken with rice, jalapeño bites with marinara sauce, crispy or spicy chicken sandwich, protein combo box and more, they add.
Aurora manages her busy schedule with a to-do list, then finds things she can do while multitasking events with her family and doing homework.
Following the usual daily announcements, Roberta and Mariah Levinson go back to class while sports announcer Nayely Alcazar goes to the set.
"Good morning, Mustangs, I'm Nayely Alcazar and I'm here with your daily sports news. ... " After sharing the school's recent athletic accomplishments, the studio production of the morning announcements is done.
With the exception of Nayely, who serves as the daily sports announcer, the main announcer duties will be shared by different ASB members.
But work seems to never be done for Aurora, an honor student who has her sights set on becoming an anesthesiologist.
Aurora will take the iPad home with her and finish editing the announcement video on the CapCut app, then upload it to the ASB YouTube channel.
McDonough will send out a link to the video in an email to teachers and staff the next morning. Teachers will show the video to students.
The idea for the daily video announcement started last school year.
"We were driving in the van together on our way to leadership camp and we were talking about different things," said McDonough, who has taught at the middle high school for 23 years.
The teacher shared her idea of video announcements with the ASB team but added she didn't know how to actually make it a reality.
That got Aurora's wheels turning.
"On the way back, Aurora was making a list for me, and over the summer she figured out how to make it work," McDonough said.
While teachers are accustomed to having standout students in her class, Aurora is very special, McDonough explained.
"Her abilities are limitless," McDonough said. "She goes after new adventures without fear and embraces the experiences of learning."
Bigger school library
Aurora's many accomplishments have been spotlighted before, including in 2024 when she decided that a bigger student school library was something she and her peers would love to see.
"Aurora set out to make a petition to have our student body sign, in order for the school to purchase more books and shelves so that the (somewhat small) student library that is located in our Media Center, could grow and benefit the kids," Lucerne Valley Unified School District officials said. "Aurora's hard work and diligent mindset worked, and with 164 student signatures, she then presented the petition to the Middle High School administration."
It was then decided that more books in the student library was a great idea. Aurora also presented the administration with a list of titles the students would like to see included. Once approved, the books were ordered.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: How one student powers Lucerne Valley High's daily video announcements
