For The Passion
By Jarrod Milton
Druid Hills High School
12th Grade
Atlanta, GA
In her first appearance at Auburn University’s High School Journalism Workshop, Sarah Panko, a broadcast journalist for WRBL News in Columbus, GA and Auburn, Ala., came to Auburn to teach the participants about broadcast journalism. With her knowledge and previous experiences in the field of television, Panko wowed her audience of 38 worn and drowsy high school students with different anecdotes and vital lessons about broadcast journalism.
For Panko, speaking in front of a crowd is the easiest part of her job. A graduate from Marquette University and a native of Chicago, Panko has been working as an anchor, writer and on the scene reporter for WRBL News for a year and a half now. She even does some of her own producing, editing and filming. With her four a.m. wake up calls and constant traveling in all type of weather, it would be easy to think that she might just have the job for the money, yet Panko sees her work as ‘exhausting but amazing.’
“Just being at the desk, there’s something amazing about it,” Panko said, “I just love telling the amazing stories about different people.”
She wasn’t always the proficient reporter she is today. Panko said she had to learn on the fly constantly while working, sometimes gaining information while driving from place to place.
“It’s really tough and you have to be really flexible with this job,” Panko said, “Work should come first.”
Although she worked as a journalist in high school and earned a journalism degree in college, Panko also did not always believe that she would go into this profession.
Now that she is in the profession, she plans to go all the way to the top of television news, citing that she would want to “work in a top two network like Chicago or Los Angeles” someday. Panko also gave the future writers a little wisdom by rounding out her message with this, "try a little bit of everything.”
For Panko, speaking in front of a crowd is the easiest part of her job. A graduate from Marquette University and a native of Chicago, Panko has been working as an anchor, writer and on the scene reporter for WRBL News for a year and a half now. She even does some of her own producing, editing and filming. With her four a.m. wake up calls and constant traveling in all type of weather, it would be easy to think that she might just have the job for the money, yet Panko sees her work as ‘exhausting but amazing.’
“Just being at the desk, there’s something amazing about it,” Panko said, “I just love telling the amazing stories about different people.”
She wasn’t always the proficient reporter she is today. Panko said she had to learn on the fly constantly while working, sometimes gaining information while driving from place to place.
“It’s really tough and you have to be really flexible with this job,” Panko said, “Work should come first.”
Although she worked as a journalist in high school and earned a journalism degree in college, Panko also did not always believe that she would go into this profession.
Now that she is in the profession, she plans to go all the way to the top of television news, citing that she would want to “work in a top two network like Chicago or Los Angeles” someday. Panko also gave the future writers a little wisdom by rounding out her message with this, "try a little bit of everything.”