A European Young Adult Broadcast and Me
I’m a young adult from the Canterbury Stake (Kent) and an aspiring architect currently studying for my masters. My calling is as a member of the recently-formed Europe Young Adult Advisory Council.
Rising Gen: Europe is a new broadcast series made by the young people of Europe, for the young people of Europe. Together with Europe Area Seventies and the Church’s Communications Department, young people conceive and develop each episode, write the scripts, plan the interviews and film the out-of-studio segments all across the Europe Area.
It happened because the Europe Area Presidency wanted to create a way for European youth, missionaries, young adults (married or single) and friends of the Church to become more connected to each other and inspired to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Irene Kabongo (my co-host) and I were both invited to accept the assignment to present Rising Gen: Europe to an Area Seventy (Elder Alan Philips) who works closely with the Europe Area Presidency. At that point I had been developing the broadcasts for a couple of months with my fellow members of the Europe Young Adult Advisory Council but didn’t expect to be asked. I felt honoured, trusted, a little daunted, but excited to get to work.
Having never worked as an on-screen presenter before, I had to learn a lot of new skills quickly on the job (camera awareness, speaking clearly, interview skills, etc.). The hardest work, however, was definitely off-camera:
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putting together an amazing team of videographers and technicians
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finding the right people to interview both in and out of the studio
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finding lovely musical items
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prayerfully consulting with interviewees about what we should discuss in each episode
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making sure that what we put on screen reflects Europe’s diverse nations, cultures and people
As both a creatively and technically-minded aspiring-architect, I loved the merging of creative and technical skills that a broadcast like this requires. I love being part of a major Church project which is distinctly European. Furthermore, I learned that I really love to interview people — connecting with them and drawing out their wisdom. Interviewing also reinforced my strong belief in the inspirational influence of the Holy Spirit. There were many occasions where I was blessed with inspiration as to what to ask, what to say, and when.
I have learned so much about Christlike love and conduct from the goodness of our leaders and their families. Up until this year, these were men and women whom I had only ever seen speaking on-screen at general conference, or from a distance at a stake conference. I have now had many interactions with them both virtually and in person, and I count them as some of the most wonderful people I know who want the very best for me and my generation.