A Penticton Secondary graduate is going to be returning to her roots this summer.
Linzi Sheldon, a broadcast journalist with KIRO TV in Seattle, will be lending a hand at the B.C. Youth Writer’s Camp from July 5 to 10, teaming up with Shaw Cable to host a workshop on investigative reporting for those attending the one week day-camp at Okanagan College’s Penticton campus.
“I hope to introduce them to the writing side of TV that they might not know about or realize,” said Sheldon. “I think kids see what is on TV and they don’t think about the writing that goes into that.”
After graduating from Pen High in 2002, Sheldon attended Dartmouth, then Hanover College, where she majored in English with a focus on creative writing
“Then I went to Columbia graduate school of journalism, and graduated with a master of science in broadcast journalism,” said Sheldon.
“I started writing for the city newspaper and that got me melding my love for writing stories, and then for writing news reports and putting them together into what I do now.”
Sheldon taught a similar program at the 2013 writers camp, which she said got an enthusiastic response from the young writers.
“I think a lot of them were excited to see how you could use writing with other mediums,” said Sheldon. “But melding writing with shooting video and interviewing people and editing, those are some cool things they may not have got a chance to learn about.”
Sheldon said her introduction to putting it all together came while she was at Dartmouth and managed to secure an internship on NBC’s the Today Show.
“That was my first exposure to TV journalism. I worked on the farewell special for Katie Couric, which was great. I was going through all the highlights of everything she has done and seeing the stories,” said Sheldon.
“It really exposed me to the process and that is how I fell in love with that.”
Sheldon said she was lucky to be exposed to the process at such a high level, and now she is happy trying to pass that experience on.
“I realize that was great opportunity, but not everyone gets to see that. To give them a look inside, I think it’s kind of fun. They are really excited to ask questions about it and do it,” she said. “You never really think about the writing that goes into it until you do it, or until you see someone explain how to do it, and how you make a story out of interviewing people, how you choose sound bites and how do you write tracks that are in-between the sound bites.
“It’s just fun. It is fun to explain the process and expose kids to it.”
Sheldon said presenting at the writer’s camp is also a special opportunity; since the students have chosen to be there, they are particularly dedicated.
“I think the kids that go to the camp are special because they are really interested,” said Sheldon. “That gives you a great audience of people who want to learn and be involved and ask questions.”
After working at stations in New York state and North Carolina, Sheldon said she is happy to be working at KIRO where she anchors the weekend morning broadcasts in addition to her reporting duties.
“I love it, Seattle is a great city. It is close to family and B.C. now, which is wonderful,” said Sheldon. “This allows me to drive home.”