When the C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) sought schools to visit during its 50-state bus stop tour, Tammy Thueringer instantly thought of her alma mater.
Nearly 20 years after graduating from Kent-Meridian High School, Thueringer found herself back home and at a growing, diversified school last Friday as a C-SPAN program producer and volunteer guide on the network’s high-tech motor coach.
“We’re spreading the gospel of C-SPAN,” said Thueringer, a 1999 K-M graduate, between helping students on how to use the mobile classroom and studio. “It’s nice to see students coming here to the new bus and learning about C-SPAN and what’s available to them.”
C-SPAN, in partnership with Comcast, is bringing “interactive demonstrations of C-SPAN’s multi-platform public service resources” to visitors. The bus includes access to “an exclusive interactive experience” on 11 large-screen tablets, a smart TV and a classroom area for conversations with students and teachers, an HD TV production studio for taped and live programming, a 360-degree video station featuring C-SPAN’s coverage, and a D.C.-themed selfie station.
All of which is conducive to C-SPAN’s outreach to help kids discover, research and learn from the vast video library and information archive that the network has produced on a national and global scale.
Thueringer is part of the big picture, a producer for one of C-SPAN’s signature shows, “Washington Journal,” a Washington, D.C., daily morning call-in program that has been on the network since 1995. She previously worked as a politics producer for the network, and prior to joining C-SPAN, was a weekend White House reporter at Bloomberg.
Thueringer, a Washington State University alumna, has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School.
“It’s nice to be back,” she said.
The C-SPAN Bus is on a 14-month trip to visit all 50 state capitals to engage with teachers, students, elected officials and viewers to showcase the network’s multi-platform public service resources. Olympia and the stop in Kent represented the halfway point of the journey.
The tour coincides with the C-SPAN Bus program’s 25th anniversary of traveling the country. C-SPAN will interview state-elected officials throughout the tour and gather video responses from visitors about issues that are important in their state.
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Shannon Augustus, a marketing representative for C-SPAN, engages students on a discussion on the touring bus. MARK KLAAS, Kent Reporter
Students interact with large-screen tablets on the high-tech C-SPAN Bus during its stop at Kent-Meridian High School on Friday. MARK KLAAS, Kent Reporter
