By SHAYLA LOVE  

Shirley Arrieta, now 28, was a junior at Lehman College when she realized nursing wasn’t for her. Her passion was photography, but she declared a nursing major, thinking it would provide a better salary. Now, three years in, she was giving it up. That’s when she went to a taping of daytime talk show, The View.

“I wasn’t even paying attention to the show, I was paying attention to the production,” Arrieta said. “The cameras being moved, the lights getting directions. I was just excited by it. I thought, production is what I need to do.”

Luckily, Lehman College is home to the award-winning network BronxNet, with programming produced by student interns, the public and professionals. Arrieta got an internship at BronxNet, and is now a full-time producer. She looks at home in her headset, behind a monitor to direct college students who, like she did, hope to find professional work in the media field.

For and By the Public
Arrieta is just one of many success stories BronxNet has to share. The network celebrated its 20th anniversary on May 1, where it lauded the station and some of its high-profile alumni like Darlene Rodriguez, of the NBC’s Today Show, and Dean Meminger, of NY1. His beat was initially the Bronx. Now he covers the courts.

BronxNet is a public-access model serving as a lab for curious media enthusiasts. High school and college students can sign up for internships or independent study to run the production and programs, under professional mentors. Additionally, any Bronxite can take training at Lehman College and put on their own show. Michael Max Knobbe, executive director since 2002, said that BronxNet works because it filled a need in the community.

“The Bronx has for too long been misrepresented,” he said. “By allowing the community to tell their own story, allowing them to set the record straight and identify the real issues we’re facing— it’s tremendous. This affords more interaction and public participation, to produce real results.”

BronxNet has six channels that cover the arts, cooking, local politics, public affairs and more. Programs like Bronx Talk, Today’s Verdict and OPEN explore Bronx current events through original interviews and reporting. And Knobbe said they’re expanding. Along with renovations to the main studios at Lehman, BronxNet will be spreading to the Andrew Freedman complex in the South Bronx, and to the Mercy College campus at The Hutchinson Metro Center.

An Educational Focus
Knobbe started at BronxNet as a student too. As an MFA student at Lehman, he answered an ad to design a logo for a new TV station. When he went into the studio, only one desk sat where monitors, equipment and interns bustle today. Knobbe did the branding for BronxNet before it existed. Today, he’s still its biggest promoter.

Knobbe brags about all of his student workers like a proud parent. He can list, off the top of his head, where they ended up, and what network they work for. “My administrative team says I have a memory like an elephant,” he said. But it’s more than that. He stresses it’s really the students who keep this place running. “As you look around, you can see students actually working the cameras, you see students on state-of-the-art production equipment, you see students creating something that is presented to the community,” he said.

The studios have a professional energy. The cameras to live shows are handled by youth whose demeanor seems older than their looks. Arrieta said the amount of trust placed in the students drives the mean learning curve. “This is a place where I was able to be that sponge,” she said. “Learn, ask questions, touch this, touch that. You can pick up on the new interns when they have that fear: they don’t want to mess up, because this is live. When you see that someone has entrusted in you that you can do it, they ease up and they become self-starters. They’ll walk in and they know what they have to do without being told.”

A New Term for the New Bronx
This is all part of what Knobbe calls “Bronx strong.” He coined the term to represent a new Bronx of growth and progress. “What was once a symbol of urban blight is now a symbol of urban renewal because of the community coming together,” Knobbe said. “We’ve seen the positive changes that improve our quality of life, that give more opportunity to our youth. It was not without fighting a good fight that these things happened.”

All the interns know the physical symbol that’s paired with Bronx strong. It’s the crossing of both arms, ending in a fist, to make an “X” in front of the body. They exhibit it proudly, as Knobbe tours the studios throwing out his slogan, “Stay Bronx strong!”