For the 6th season of WCNY PBS’ “Behind the Woman” we’re adding a new spin, the Career Challenge. With 8 mentors from past seasons, 32 lucky SCSD students will have the opportunity to work in teams of four to complete a project centered around their field. Each team will present their projects to a panel of judges who will determine who will be the winner of the first ever Career Challenge. Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
Career Fields and Mentors:
Culinary and Hospitality: Ashley Homer
Fashion: Mariella Canady-Towns
Financial Services: Vicki Brackens
Marketing and PR: Cjala Surrat
Medicine: Dr. Tanya Paul
Music: DJ Bella
Public Safety, Firefighting: Tamica Barnett
Theater: Joann Yarrow
Eight applicants from each field will be invited to be interviewed on camera at WCNY Studios. Here each student will have a five-minute interview with the mentor of their selected field. The top four in each field will be selected for their career team.
Each team will be taken on separate Career Field Trips with their respective mentors and the hosts of the show, giving the teams the opportunity to see firsthand what working a day in that career field will look like. At the end of the Career Field Trip each team will be presented with their Career Challenge, a hands-on task for the team that gives them practical experience in their field.
Every team will have three to four sessions with their mentor to work together on their Career Challenge. The host will also be there conversing with the teams to get to know more about each member and the progress of their project. Students are welcome to work on their projects outside of these meetings when the production crew is not present, but projects will be designed to be completed within the time that mentors and production are present.
After these meetings are completed, teams will present their final projects to the show’s panel of judges at the WCNY Studio during our season finale in front of a live studio audience. From there the judges will select the winner of the season based on how the teams did on their projects.
Commitment Requirements:
Top 8 Applicants for each Career Field:
– On Camera 5-minute interview with team mentor at WCNY Studios during the month of March/April. Required to be in studios for a full evening or Saturday as we will conduct multiple teams’ interviews.
Four selected Team Members for each Career Field:
– Confessional after the interview with mentor to introduce each member to viewers
– Career Field Trip with mentor. Approximately two to two and half hours, students will be mic’d up while production crew follows them.
– Confessional after the field trip sharing thoughts and giving more of their individual story.
– Three to four days of working on the project with your team and mentor that the production team will be recording. Students will be mic’d up for this as well. Meetings will approximately be two to two and a half hours for each day.
– Individual and team confessionals on how the project is going and your experience
– Present your team’s project during the finale, teams will need to be there the entirety of the three to four hours of recording for the finale.
** This competition is for students of all genders and not limited to young women. The show is maintaining its “Behind the Woman” connection through the hosts, mentors, and judges from past guests of the program. Even though this is a competition show, we are not going to embarrass any students during the interview process and will only be using strong answers from the students that are shown but not selected to a team.
