For decades, Viking Television Network (VTN) has been a staple in the lives of South Brunswick High School (SBHS) students, delivering morning announcements to students daily since it first aired in 1998. Behind the scenes, however, there has always been a group of students who help the program run smoothly. VTN’s course listings offer classes for freshmen to seniors, starting with Video in the 21st Century, and the highest-level course being Studio Production for Television, an honors-weighted class.
That isn’t all there is to it, though. VTN has had a program called Making the Grade that has existed for nearly as long as the network itself has. Making the Grade is the highest level of VTN broadcast journalism offered at SBHS—and is the most advanced out of what courses are offered for video production. Making the Grade is essentially a 30- to 50-minute news-package style episodic series, covering topics across SBHS: the first episode detailed AP African American Studies (APAAS), Art at SBHS, and the freshman experience.
The episode includes an overview of the particular class it is focused on, followed by a panel discussion. The first episode covered APAAS, and featured one of the course’s teachers, Mr. Tuttle, on the panel.
In an interview with Mr. James Cafiero, the Video and Technology teacher and VTN advisor, he said, “I think it’s really important that people are empathetic to multiple different cultures. Classes like that give people the opportunity to learn more about what other people experience in different countries and different things that they do in their culture. I think it’s a very important part of SPS and our district as well.”
The panel portion is not limited to only students, and Making the Grade student Anya Nair (’27) said, “I think it’s interesting to hear their perspective, especially because from those teaching the classes, as in hearing both perspectives from students and staff.”
The series is designed to cover almost anything at all, and Zainab Ashraf (’26), another Making the Grade student, said, “I would say there are multiple different kinds of messages depending on each episode and each segment. So each episode can have a different theme or a different message, or each could have a similar point. “
Between weeks of scheduling the panel with all the members, filming the actual segments, and editing, a tremendous amount of work goes into the production of these episodes..
Katie Trela (’26) expressed her pride in the product, “I feel like it was really nice seeing everybody’s different roles and perspective on it—I like seeing the finished product! When we got to do the panel or get to watch the video, all completed, it’s like, wow, we just did that.”
As the school year progresses, Making the Grade will continue updating and releasing episodes. Making the Grade is not only a great platform to share student and staff voices, and to shed light on stories around SBHS’s community, but also to look into the students behind the camera who tell those stories.
Eliza Khan (2026) contributed to the reporting of this story
