She’s a high school student, like any of us, but she’s also become something of a local TV star. And as much as you’ve seen her on air, you probably wonder about Anna Gustafson, the executive producer of the 11 Stories news show. She said people occasionally recognize her outside of her news show appearances. “In the halls I’ve heard people refer to me as the news lady,” she said.

She once was even asked by a girl in a restaurant if she was an anchor on 11 Stories.

Her call to journalism started in the old North Atlanta building. Gustafson ended up in the Global Broadcasting and Journalism Small Learning Community (SLC) by accident. The communities, or SLCs, were part of the curricular culture at the old NAHS. Freshmen chose a “career pathway” when starting school at NAHS. Gustafson met teacher Andre Regan in her SLC, and he was the one who mentioned to her that the school was starting a news show. “I thought it would be cool to be on TV for everyone so I said ‘sure, I’ll do it.’ The good thing is that I ended up loving it,” she said.

Last summer, Gustafson studied with the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute. It was a great honor for Gustafson to be selected, as the program is highly competitive, only selecting 84 students for the institute each year. Gustafson says being a student at the institute was life-changing for her, “I loved every second of it. It was the best summer I’ve ever had.”

A few years ago, the news show was called NAHS News. It ran irregularly during Gustafson’s freshmen year and biweekly during her sophomore year. On NAHS News,  she filled the roles of producer, anchor and regular reporter.

Gustafson’s favorite part of producing the news show is the chaos it involves. To viewers, the show looks well-prepared and seamless, but the reality of the show is different. “On Thursday afternoons it is always a sort of rush to get everything put in one file and export it to Vimeo. Everyone is yelling at each other for help and somehow it all gets finished,” said Gustafson.

Her favorite segments on the show are the satirical ones. In the past, 11 Stories has spoofed NBC’s “The Office” calling the high school version “The Studio.” Gustafson enjoys collaborating with her colleagues for clever segments. However, on the show, her favorite task is anchoring.

As is the case every year, the 11 Stories team is changing the show’s introduction and song. She also said that they are working on the transitions by trying to make them look more professional.  Gustafson estimates she works around six hours on the show every week. She plans to do a double major in broadcast journalism in college and she says her experience working on the show has been invaluable. She said she knows she wants to work in broadcasting for her whole life. The experience with the show also has helped her with working in groups, video editing, finishing projects, and dealing with time limits and deadlines. It is professional training for serious broadcaster right here at North Atlanta’s 11 stories.