Sacred Heart University graduate Maisy Carvalho was a producer for the news station WSLS10 on a one-hour special called “On the Frontline.”
Carvalho, a 2021 graduate from SHU, had previous experience working in production, which helped prepare her for her work with WSLS10. The video special she helped produce is available on YouTube and currently has over 365,000 views and over two thousand comments.
In her time at SHU she was Editor in Chief of The Spectrum and Senior Producer for The Pulse.
Source: WSLS 10 News
“My position as former editor in chief prepared me well for working on the “On The Frontline” special. Spectrum is a weekly deadline-driven project, so knowing how to organize my workflow was extremely helpful to the team. My role with The Pulsetaught me news judgment and how to keep a story balanced which was important to keep in mind for the special as it is a controversial topic,” said Carvalho.
The U.S.-Mexico border is a prominent topic of discussion in the country today, and Carvalho was able to help shed light on the truthful rawness of this topic. In the On the Frontline Special with John Carlin, co-anchor for WSLS10, he shows the emotionsof these migrants begging for troops to let them into the US in hopes to find any sort of sanctuary.
In one of the videos filmed by WSLS10 for the special, a woman attempts to cross the border pleading with troops to be let into the U.S. When she gets detained, she explains how her son Jose received death threats from criminal gangs back home.
Footage like this can be seen throughout the special and was a motivation for Carvalho to get involved in telling this story.
“I was aware of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border but it wasn’t until I heard the first-hand accounts from migrants we spoke to that I felt the importance of the story,” said Carvalho. “I took an interest in further telling the story and my news director wanted me to take on the project. I knew how important of a story this was to tell and as I continued my research, my passion for the subject grew.”
Carvalho previous experience in producing at Sacred Heart on The Pulse, which was taught by Prof. Joseph Alicastro.
Alicastro, previously a 30-year veteran producer of NBC News, brought his knowledge from the station to The Pulse to teach his student reporters how to develop and fine tune their technical and editorial skills to make them ready for a professional career.
“Everything that we do in The Pulse is what my former students are doing now in the real world and that’s really the whole goal of this program is to prepare you to be professionals and I think that really is true in Maisy’s case,” said Alicastro. “I worked with Maisy on all of her pulse projects on the three semesters that she was a part of. She was an excellent producer, an excellent leader and driven to success.
Junior Aoife Calnan viewed the special and felt inspired to see the work that Carvalho is doing post – graduation.
“As a Sacred Heart student I find it so inspiring to see alumni Maisy Carvalho having such a big role in spreading awareness of the U.S. – Mexico border crisis,” said Calnan. “Before viewing the special I had no idea the severity of this pressing issue. It is so important to follow in Maisy’s footsteps and do our part to better the world.”
