Dalton student spends week learning at CNN center

Published 6:29 am Sunday, July 8, 2012

Kevin Aguilar has always enjoyed public speaking, acting and anything else that puts him in front of a camera or in front of a crowd.

So when the Dalton High School rising junior got a chance to apply for one of 75 sponsored spots for the Atlanta-based Leadership Unplugged: A CNN Experience camp this summer, he jumped at it. He was among several hundred who applied and had to submit written answers to several essay-type questions as well as undergo an interview about his interest in journalism and in going to the camp.

“It’s very exciting,” Aguilar said of being chosen. “It makes me feel good as a person.”

Students got to spend the week interacting with older student interns where they participated in classes and workshops and developed story ideas. At the end of the week, they did presentations before a panel of CNN and TBS executives.

They included Nima Ahmed, executive producer for Morning Express with Robin Meade for HLN; Christi Paul, anchor for HLN and In Session on truTV; Carl Azuz, anchor for CNN Student News; and Bill Galvin, senior vice president of business development and sports programming for CNN International.

Aguilar said his father Luigi, who works at a Spanish-language newspaper and for a local radio station, inspired his passion for pursuing a career as a broadcast journalist. He said he sometimes shadows his father on stories, and he plans to intern at a local radio station next year as part of his work-based learning at school. He hopes to major in broadcast journalism at the University of Georgia after graduation.

“Broadcast journalism is really my dream,” Aguilar said. “I could go on doing it forever, and I wouldn’t think of it as a job.”

CNN spokesman Eugene Sanders said Aguilar is “a remarkable student.”

“I’m so happy to have met him this past week with the rest of the 74 students,” Sanders said. “They are our future leaders.”

For more information on the camp, visit http://21stcenturyleaders.org.