Kaila Lafferty (class of 2012)
Growing up I had this
creative energy that I could never figure out how to focus. I couldn’t draw or
paint, but one thing I was really good at was telling stories. It wasn’t until
high school that I realized that telling stories could be my future. I decided
to join the Digital Filmmaking Program at Ballard High School, and from that
point on I knew my passion.
Shortly after beginning
my first production class I found that I had another passion: filming. I learned
that there is no better feeling in the world than clean rack focus, or framing
up the perfect shot. By the time I finished high school, my films had been
nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Student
Production Awards presented at the Northwest Regional Emmys, featured (three
times) in the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (an international
festival), and won Best Documentary at the national Derek Freese Youth Film Festival in Philadelphia. The knowledge I gained from the Digital Filmmaking
Program at Ballard High School was invaluable, and gave me the tools I needed
to find my path in life.
I graduated in 2012 and
decided to take my passion for storytelling to The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, where I majored in Broadcast
Journalism. During my years there, I aced my classes involving filming
and editing, and became a producer for Cable 8 Productions. My senior year I
interned at KHQ Local News in Spokane, Washington and this is where I learned
that being a reporter was my calling. As I was graduating with my bachelor’s
degree in May of 2016, I found out that I had won a Northwest Regional Emmy for
Best Overall Newscast for a show I had produced for Murrow News 8.
