Brian Thompson Visits High School North
As the students of Mr. Scala’s Honors History classes and Mr. Russoniello’s Journalism 1 and 2 classes listen intently to Brian Thomson’s speech, the sudden sound of a ringing cell phone was coming from the speaker’s pocket. Thomson pulled out the device and, as a surprise to the students, actually answered it. He doesn’t say much, hangs up the phone and dials a number to speak to one of his co-workers, another surprise to the students sitting in the audience. “Yes, yes is the helicopter ready?” says Thomson, “can it fly?… Good, get it in the air and down to Seaside Heights, there’s a man on top of the waterlogged roller coaster waving an American flag. We are the only ones who know about this.” He hung up the phone all while nothing but giggles and smiles come from the audience after this unexpected event.
This was something that High School North had never experienced before. Brian Thompson of NBC News spoke to this crowd of students on January 8th, 2012. He came to speak about his life experiences as a reporter and how information is so powerful in today’s world.
The program began just as students got settled in their seats. Mrs. Chaudhery from The League of Women Voters introduced Thompson, summarizing some of his accomplishments as a reporter and journalist. Thomson was awarded the first ever environmental award in New Jersey and won an Emmy for his work on NBC New York’s political series “What Matters.”
Thompson came right out of the gate and immediately began to ask the audience questions such as who reads the daily newspaper, watches the news, or receives news from online sources. He wasn’t surprised with the lackluster amount of hands that were raised for each of the questions asked.
This informal survey brought Thompson into his next point and main theme of the entire assembly by quoting a phrase from Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge itself is power.”To connect with the students, he used an analogy about soccer to explain this quote further. “If you’re a professional soccer player and you know that the goalie that you are versing always dives to the left, then which way would you try to kick the ball?” This lead him to a more serious subject about Superstorm Sandy and how the knowledge from this storm will hopefully protect the East Coast in the future.
Beginning on the night of October 20th, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast harder than any other storm in recent history. Thompson was there to experience it all from beginning to end. He reported all night to 5 o’clock the next morning. He never took a break, even though his news team begged him to get some rest. Thompson refused, knowing that people were relying on him to inform them about the damage from this storm.
After an experience like this, Thompson asked the students in front of him what would be the smart thing to do in case another storm such as Sandy should hit the East Coast. “Should we rebuild our houses inside of flood zones, knowing that another catastrophe like this could occur again? Or should we rebuild in an area that is not designated as a flood zone?” Thompson ended this portion of the presentation with a few words that left everybody in the room thinking, “When you make a choice, no matter what it may be, there are consequences, good and bad.”
Thompson broke the silence and opened the floor to any questions the students might have for him. “What was the scariest experience you’ve had with your job?” one student asked. While reporting on the Bosnian Conflict (1992-1995), Thompson was run off the road in his taxi and was stuck in a ditch, possibly filled with landmines. “I got out of the vehicle and took the biggest steps of my life to get back up onto the road. That was a terrifying experience,” said Thompson.
When asked “Did you want to be a reporter when you grew up?”, his reply was “No, I actually wanted to be a U.S. Senator.” For Thompson, becoming a reporter started out in Gainesville, Florida, where he got a small job at a radio station as an announcer. “It was a lot of fun” he said. Everything took off from there. Thompson received his Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Florida and quickly worked his way up to be apart of the NBC News Team.
As the last couple questions were answered, the program was beginning to come to an end. However, before Thompson was going to leave Middletown High School North, he wanted his last words to mean something special to the audience of students in front of him, something that they could think about for the rest of their lives. “How people receive their information is how people can do their job. Its all about information and communication.”
Thompson’s program was officially over. Most of the students returned back to their classes, while some thanked him for the presentation. Administrators of the school also thanked Thomson for his effort to make it to North, and with that, North’s Celebrity speaker had to run off to catch his helicopter ride to Seaside, NJ. After all, he had a story to report and information that the public needed to know. To watch Brian Thomson on TV, check out NBC Nightly News on Channel 4 from 6:30 to 7:00 P.M.
