Anne Arundel County Public Schools, MD Then & Now: Alumni Success Stories, 2 Jul 2019

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From YouTube: Then & Now – Katie Wilhelm Smithson

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Fox45, National Geographic, and now TLC—Katie Wilhelm Smithson has spent her career sharing stories through video and television. That passion was ignited at South River High School, where she learned the writing skills to tell a story and was given the freedom to be herself on and off camera.

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(Gentle music).

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My name is katie wilhelm., I'm 17, and I play sports..

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I like to watch tv too., it's fun. and that's about it., I'm not that exciting. (tape whirring).

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(Upbeat music) my whole life. I've wanted to do something with television.

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when I was younger,, I really got into playing with video.

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Luckily,, my parents were pretty patient and would video stuff for me..

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It's funny to think that there's something I did in 9th grade as like this goofy thing, I'm still doing as a 35 year, old.

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I went to salisbury, was able to get into the tv department, and I found an internship at a local news station..

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I kind of liked writing the teases for the news instead of actually writing the news,. So I started putting my teases together on my own and writing all my stuff, working with the anchors and the reporters.

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and then decided. I wanted to try something different,, so I came to tlc. here at tlc,, I'm a supervising producer, and it's basically just a fancy title for someone who makes commercials.. I like doing puzzles,, and so I feel like my job- is basically puzzles with soundbites.

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screening, a show, trying to write a script, and then heading over to edit and trying to make some kind of promo to make. You guys want to watch our shows.

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I'm glad that I went to news and then came to cable rather than going from cable to going to news,, because news, the deadlines are insane..

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You have to be on your toes at all times. and I think that really helped where I am now, because I can write fast and think on my feet.

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We have a little bit more time to try to think about a story and work with an editor and really try to get that looking pretty, rather than just getting it on the air..

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It's just a different way of writing, and I was able to loosen up a little bit and just kind of have some fun. next tuesday at 9 on tlc.

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(Gentle music).

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One of the classes I took at south river was my tv production class..

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They put a camera in your hands, and we kind of would walk around sometimes during the period.

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And try to find things to make stories out of..

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They taught us reel-to-reel editing,, which is what I discovered was one of my passions, and I loved it. learning how to write and edit to tell a story like that was awesome.

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it. Let me get my hands right in there and try it.

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I did my first commercial at south river,, which is horrible. but,. You know, what?, you gotta be proud,, because that was my first attempt.

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that tv production class really cemented that. I wanted.

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To do this., I really love stories.. When I was a senior,, we had a literature class..

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That's where I learned how to try to tell a story. Concisely.

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Understanding the order and format of a short story is important., so they actually learned what makes a good story.

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And they wrote their own short stories. Also.

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katie was one of those young people who kind of absorbed it all.

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The writing skills that I learned at south river,.

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I use them every day.. I have to tell stories in either 15 seconds or 30 seconds.

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Enough to get your attention., the beginning, middle, end of stories and the story arcs and the character arcs, you have all of that here, but it's just on a real quick,, smaller scale..

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Those are big things I learned in high school that I still carry with me.

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She's working professionally now as a writer.

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She took it to a different level.

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South river also,, they let me be myself.

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I was a class clown., I talked a lot., but they kind of. Let me be me,, which was nice..

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She was having fun.

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She was enjoying the experience of learning.

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I loved athletics., I played tennis, and I played basketball and soccer.

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and we won two state championships. When I was there.

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the school got behind it, and you could. Everyone was proud of us. and, so,. It was like a big sense of community..

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I made our motto: losing stinks and we smell good.

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It stuck, and we used to say that before each game.

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I guess maybe that was like the first tagline I ever wrote.

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My advice to someone would just be, be willing to do what it takes to get where you want to be.

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When I was in salisbury,, I interned for the morning show 3:00 am to 9:00 am, and then had to go to class all day..

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I wanted to do it,, so I did it. and no one else wanted to do a morning. Internship.!

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That's what got me to meet the person who helped me get the job at fox45, who helped me get the job at channel 9, who helped me get the job at nat geo..

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You never know where you're gonna meet someone or what opportunities are gonna present, themselves.

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being willing to work and do the jobs that no one wants to do,. It's not hard., and if you want to do, you'll figure out how to get it done., it will take you far.

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The sky's, the limit for katie.

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she's got great skills. she's got an excellent personality..

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I am extremely proud of the young woman, she's become.

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It's been my passion, my whole life and something I knew I wanted to do.

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and, luckily, here I am doing it.

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Katie smithson, south river high school, class of '98.

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(Gentle music).