When Anna Robinson first interviewed News4’s Jim Vance, she was a student reporter at Eliot-Hine Middle School in Northeast D.C.
Now, the high schooler and some of her classmates returned to Eliot-Hine to tape a video tribute to Vance, which they posted Friday.
"If it wasn't for him, I would have never been doing it [journalism]," Robinson told News4's Mark Segraves. "So, I will continue to take his legacy with me."
Robinson and a classmate interviewed Vance for the Eliot-Hine Network, the school’s television and radio program, in 2015.
After Vance died July 22 following a battle with cancer, teacher Mandrell Birks called his former students.
They made a video tribute to Vance using the original interview plus an opening from one student and a closing by Robinson, modeled after Vance’s "Viewpoint" segments.
The students first met Vance at Standing Ovation for D.C. Teachers, a Kennedy Center event honoring D.C. instructors. Vance was the master of ceremonies.
The students were in for a special surprise: Vance invited them onstage.
“Jim brought us on the main stage unexpectedly and introduced us as his colleagues in journalism,” Robinson said in the video tribute. “I felt like I was a prominent person in the field of journalism.”
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During the interview, the students pepper Vance with questions, asking the former high school teacher about the importance of strong instructors and public schools.
“Rest in Peace, Mr. Jim Vance,” Robinson said in the video. “This is Anna Robinson’s viewpoint."
