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Gulliver Prep 11th grader, Sarah Shapiro, won 1st Place in the category of Vertical NAT package, as part of the Student Television Network National Conference this March. Excelling under pressure, Shapiro had just a few hours to produce a mobile-ready, 16:9 feature story for social media. Her piece highlighted a bicycle repair shop that became a hub for the community, showcasing its impact through storytelling and seamless execution.
Shapiro’s commercial segment was also part of Gulliver Prep’s winning submission for Crazy 8 Division 1 Morning Show.
Shapiro was also selected to be one of a handful of students in the country to serve on the Student Board and Leadership Council of the Student Television Network (STN), a national non-profit 501C(3) organization that teaches middle and high school students about videography and filmmaking.
“STN shapes the next generation of story tellers,” Shapiro says. “We are helping students find their voices.”
Her freshman year, Shapiro took part in digital competitions for the non-profit. As a sophomore, Shapiro represented her high school at her first in-person national competition at STN’s annual convention in Los Angeles, CA. As a junior, Shapiro took on a leadership role for the school’s commercial segment in their national award winning STN Crazy 8 newsmagazine entry at the annual convention in Tampa, FL.
Shapiro has been working on her broadcasting skills since seventh grade.
“That was my first year with an actual teacher teaching me to use a real camera,” she says. “My skills really transformed in seventh grade.”
Before that, she made videos and music videos with her cousin, her siblings, and her friends.
“When I was six or seven, I started experimenting with my parents’ phone and iPad,” she says. “We made movies, skits and photo compilations. I was the producer, editor and on-screen talent; I did it all and loved it. At first, I wasn’t the best, but I played around with apps and watched YouTube videos of editing, and I started to love editing.”
Ninth grade was a pivotal year for Shapiro. She says that’s when her broadcasting skills really took off. Gulliver Prep hired a new teacher for their Digital Mass Media Program, Mr. Zach Garrett, and Shapiro says he transformed the broadcasting program.
She loves competing in various broadcasting competitions, including the Florida Scholastic Press Association. Shapiro won First Place in the Quill and Scroll competition in 2022 for a news feature about the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
Outside of school and broadcasting, Shapiro serves on the Temple Beth Am Social Justice Teen Fellowship.
“We volunteer monthly at local food deserts and give to those in need,” she says. “We went to Immokalee and Opa-locka where we provided food and cleaned up the garden that is a big part of their community.”
As part of this fellowship, Shapiro recently returned from a volunteer trip to Guatemala with 23 other teens in the fellowship.
“We visited the Hero School to help build new buildings, including a cafeteria using sustainable materials,” she says. “Something I found interesting about Hero School is that if a family is unable to pay the tuition, they also accept payment in trash and recycled items, which are used to build more buildings. Overall, it was an eye-opening, very rewarding trip.”
Shapiro is a member of the National Honor Society, the English National Honor Society, the National Spanish Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta. She will be inducted into the Science National Honor Society later this month.
Shapiro and her classmates have been practicing for the Crazy 8 competition at the Student Television Network Convention since the summer. The team had eight hours to produce an entire show, including stories, weather, commercials, and entertainment segments, competing against 3,500 other students in Tampa, FL—and their hard work paid off, earning Gulliver Prep the national award this March.
Last summer, she helped launch the inaugural Gulliver RaiderVision Summer Camp. She taught rising and current middle schoolers production basics, equipment operation, editing skills, on-camera talent, and more. She will return for 2025 where she will take on a leadership position this summer.
Shapiro was also a counselor at a day camp in upstate New York for kids ages 2-15.
“I was a counselor for the youngest age group. They were adorable. Every day there was a new story about their siblings or their pets. It was the best job ever,” she says.
This summer, Shapiro will volunteer at the Gulliver RaiderVision Summer Camp again and is also working on an independent broadcasting endeavor. Much more to come from this excellent young lady!
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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