By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - With the potential of the NBC show Three Wishes coming to Niles, Niles High School English teacher Lynn Rouse had an idea.
Rouse came up with the idea of creating a videoconference program which would allow the students to create their own version of the show, allowing them to participate with schools all over the country in sharing their wishes and voting on which ones they like the best.
On Wednesday, students in Rouse's ninth-grade reading class participated in the first videoconference with freshman students from the Olean School District in Olean, New York, a small town in the western part of the state.
Prior to each of the vidoeconferences, students in Rouse's class plan the theme of the vidoeconference and write the wishes and presentations they will be doing for that particular day's event.
The format of the videoconferences is Rouse plays the role of Three Wishes host Amy Grant, directing the students from each school to go back and forth sharing their wishes.
Seth McGowen's wishes were for his twin brothers to be in the same grade in school.
Mpange Mulenga, a student at Niles High School who is originally from the country of Zambia, shared a heartwarming wish with her classmates and the students from New York.
Students in the class also shared wishes of helping family members with problems they were having, wanting to reunite with a parent they hadn't seen in many years or just to have more money.