If she had to choose one word to describe PBS39's Media Academy, camp director Carly Dontas would choose "intensive."

Funded by a grant from the Lehigh Valley Business/Education Partnership, the camp was held at the PBS39 public media and education center at 839 Sesame Place on the SteelStacks campus. Although it only ran from June 15 through 19, the hours between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. were packed with different activities focused on the business of broadcast journalism.

The week began with the students learning about the background of broadcast journalism and the equipment in the studios along with creating their resumes. They participated in a resume writing workshop, which required them to consider their personal values and skills before compiling the finished product.

Presentations were given about how to dress, present oneself, speak and act while in the professional world. Different members of the PBS39 team, from secretary to set design, gave additional presentations about their individual roles in the company.

The students also had the opportunity to visit the campuses of Northampton Community College, DeSales University and Penn State University Lehigh Valley to learn about their programs and admissions requirements.

The students' final project for the camp was to write, produce and edit a video resume. The resumes were recorded on the second to last day of the camp in one of the studios.

Originally, the camp was geared toward having 20 students, but its final number for this summer was seven. Although in future years Dontas hopes to raise the number to between 10 and 15, she and the students agreed that this smaller number was helpful in giving each of the students personalized attention.

According to the students, the camp has offered enough insight into the business to either confirm this is the career they wish to pursue or steer them in another direction.

"I kind of chose [the camp] to experience what it's like to really dive into broadcast journalism. It's really a learning experience," said Kaitlyn Fritz, a student at Charter Arts. "I'm really leaning towards wanting to be a broadcast journalist based on what I've learned here."

Another Charter Arts student, Nicolas Gonzalez, agreed that it was a good career building camp that taught professional skills those aspiring to join the field would need to know.

"It has taught me what my first steps should be and where to go from there," Gonzalez added.

To conclude the five-day camp, students presented their video resumes to their parents before Dontas awarded each of them with a certificate and small gift.

"This is our first year and first attempt," Dontas said, but she hopes it will not be their last. If the grant is still available, she intends to run the Media Academy camp again next summer.