Middle school students at Kingsbury Country Day School in Addison Township spent a couple days last week learning interview and research techniques from a veteran journalist.
‘Those skills are things they can carry on and use for the rest of their life,? said Roberto Santiago, director of communications and strategic marketing for the Museum of Art in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Prior to entering the world of public relations in July 2008, Santiago spent about 25 years working as a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines including the Miami Herald, New York Daily News, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Businessweek and Emerge Magazine. He wrote about business, arts and entertainment, and even did investigative pieces.
This was Santiago’s third visit to Kingsbury since 2008. He was originally invited to be a guest lecturer after Spanish teacher Karen Melaas read his book ‘Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writing,? an anthology of 100 years of Puerto Rican writing.
‘She was using it as a textbook in her Spanish class,? Santiago said.
Each year he’s visited Kingsbury, Santiago’s taught something unique to students.
The first year, the subjects were Puerto Rican history, conversational Spanish and how to find their voice by writing personal essays. Last year, it was how to write a research paper worthy of a college student.
This year, Santiago dipped into his journalism background to teach students how to properly interview someone.
His lessons included setting up an interview, asking intelligent and challenging questions based on research, listening intently to what the interviewee’s saying and asking good follow-up questions based on their answers. Santiago also taught students the importance of exuding confidence, dressing properly and looking people in the eye.
Kingsbury’s students applied what they learned as Santiago helped them create a short documentary about their school and the experience of going there.
‘Kingsbury is the kind of school where people that had been students here wind up sending their kids here and doing all this volunteer work. There’s this ongoing legacy,? Santiago said.
He was quite proud of the way seventh-grader Autumn Buysse performed during her interview with Ben-Carr Blake, a former teacher, bus driver, parent association president and school board trustee who wrote a 2006 book entitled ‘Kingsbury School: The First Fifty Years.?
‘She did it perfectly,? Santiago said. ‘She asked two follow-up questions and they came up very naturally. She turned the interview into a nice conversation.?
‘To me, that was like the best moment,? he continued. ‘What Autumn demonstrated is exactly what I wanted to teach the students.?
Santiago noted these skills can be applied everywhere from the classroom to future job interviews.
Overall, he was very proud of the students and how they responded to his lessons.
‘It just made me feel good that I had reached so many of them,? he said. ‘Teaching at Kingsbury is so easy because the kids here are really smart and the teachers are so dedicated. They make me look really good.?