Former Post 5 President Receives Diamante Award

One of WRAL-TV’s former standout Explorer Post 5 members is continuing his dedication to journalism excellence in college. Diego Pineda, Post 5 President last year, was awarded the youth accomplishment scholarship of the Latino Diamante Awards on Saturday night, October 24, 2015.

Currently a freshman at Elon University, Pineda received the honor in recognition of his achievements as an outstanding Latino student and his passion for journalism. His interest in journalism began while in the Explorer Post 5 program here at WRAL. He then was selected as one of 25 students selected from a national pool to attend the 2014 Princeton Summer Journalism Program.

And The Exploration Continues
Explorer Post 5 is for anyone between the ages of 14-20 who wants to gain valuable experience in television through production, job shadowing, clinics, workshops and hands-on experience.

WRAL-TV Digital Media Administrator Steve Elizondo is one of several station employees who work with the students in Post 5. He says WRAL is working to “ramp up the ‘number of touches’ our youth get every week with the available resources at WRAL in Post 5” this year.

“So we’re accelerating the calendar this year, putting cameras in the hands of members early, and getting them to shoot footage while they learn here,” explained Elizondo. “Veteran members who got editing experience last year also work with and mentor new explorer post members who have the same interest.”

The Post 5 students are currently picking up where they left off at the end of last season and getting an early start on working on TV promos for the Durham Bulls upcoming season.

In fact, DBBC Director of Promotions Krista Boyd came to WRAL to speak to Post 5 during the first week of December. She talked to the group about how to market baseball to a television audience. The team then split up in groups to learn about and actually write thirty and fifteen second spots to help market the baseball team.

“Then we’ll take footage that the Bulls provide, couple that with music and sound we have in our library, and edit the spots for air in early 2016,” said Elizondo.

They have what Elizondo calls a “lofty” long-term goal for the year, “to shoot, produce and edit a ‘behind the scenes’ long form video about the Post 5 2015-2016 season.”

Both Explorer Post 5 at WRAL-TV and Explorer Post 50 at the Durham Bulls are members of the Learning for Life program, a subsidiary of the Boys Scouts of America and associated with the Occoneechee Council of Boys Scouts in Raleigh.

Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Jim Rothschild & Steve Elizondo for this capcom scoop and for these capcom photos.