HARLINGEN — What do Diane Sawyer, Christiane Amanpour, Hoda Kotb and Cassie Banda all have in common?
They’re all high-powered broadcast journalists.
You may not know Cassie Banda yet, but you will soon enough. She’s the anchorwoman of the news program at STEM2 Preparatory Academy.
“It is an amazing job,” said the seventh grader.
“I’ve always had a partner when it came to being an anchor on these shows, and so it’s been very fun to work with people,” she said.
“It’s been very fun to make up scripts or making up jokes leading on to a different segment.”
Cassie, 12, explained that the newscast program is one of many opportunities available for hands-on training at STEM2.
“It’s basically a way for us to branch out and for us to be able to experience new things,” she said. “I chose it because I had been doing something similar to this for so long.”
Really!
“I was at Long Elementary from about third grade,” she said. “Long Elementary also had a news cast and I participated as an anchor in that news cast also.”
She worked in that program for three years, but when the pandemic struck, she had to take a year off. But she’s back now and in the anchor seat.
“It’s just something I get to use my creativity for,” she said. “In my newscast, because I’m an anchor, I’ll introduce the newscast and then I’ll hop in once or twice to lead into a new segment.”
Being a good anchorwoman means being able to “go easy with the flow.”
“It’s definitely not all about perfection but being able to get back up where you started even if you mess up,” she said. “Sometimes it can be stressful. Sometimes you can get into your own head over it. But it’s always remembering as I said to just keep going no matter what. In the end you get a good payoff.
She hopes to later attend the Harlingen school district’s Media Arts and Communications Academy and then pursue a journalism career.
