After the departure of the Broadcast Journalism adviser last year, a Beginning Journalism teacher and adviser of another one of Palo Alto High School’s publications has stepped up to take the mantle of adviser. 

Former adviser Paul Hoeprich announced his departure this spring, and has since begun teaching at Desert Edge High School in Arizona. Hoeprich was the Broadcast Journalism adviser for five years, starting in 2014. In his place, Beginning Journalism teacher and Campanile adviser Rod Satterthwaite stepped in to become the new adviser of InFocus.

According to Satterthwaite, he offered to take on the position after hearing from the Paly administration that the school was looking for a replacement adviser, despite his misgivings about his most recent experience with broadcast journalism having been more than 20 years prior.

“I actually approached [Prinicpal] Mr. [Adam] Paulson, knowing that they were looking for someone and told him I might be willing to give it a try,” Satterthwaite said. “However, I did worry that the technology [for broadcast] has changed in the past few years, so I told him that I was interested, but I would need some training first. He told me that he would love to have me give it a try, and that he’d be willing to help pay for people to train me. And so that’s kind of how it came about.”

Although it has been some time since he has worked in realm of broadcasting, Satterthwaite’s experience as the adviser of the Campanile since 2016, in addition to over 20 years teaching and advising at other schools, cannot be denied.

According to senior and executive director of InFocus Maddy Druker, Satterthwaite has brought a fresh perspective and is a welcome addition to the publication.

“Mr. Satterthwaite has been a fantastic adviser so far,” Druker said. “He’s very on top of things and is always coming up with new ideas to make our show better. Despite not working in broadcast for multiple years, his journalism knowledge, in general, is helping us learn a lot, and he is eager to learn about what broadcast is now and how much it has changed.”

With regards to what plans he has for the future of InFocus, Satterthwaite stated that he wanted to change the direction of InFocus’ content and strengthen connections with Paly’s other publications. 

“I’d like to incorporate more of a journalistic element into InFocus,” Satterthwaite said. “I think that’s an area that we can improve upon. I’d also like to work more connecting InFocus and the resources there with the print publications because I think there is a lot of potential in incorporating storytelling and broadcasting into our publications.