He's "a pretty simple guy" who never thought he'd be working for MTV while still in college.

But MTV found something special in Casper resident Nick Perkins, 20, and hired him to be the Wyoming citizen journalist in for the "Choose or Lose Street Team '08."

MTV added the citizen journalist program to its ongoing "Choose or Lose" political campaign earlier this month to give new perspectives on topics of interest to younger audiences.

"We're kind of the guinea pigs, but it's really an awesome opportunity," Perkins said. "MTV, they get a bum rap sometimes, but they have their fingers on the pulse of the youth and they know what they want to do, and I think this is a pretty cool way to do it."

The entertainment company gave each of its 50 new journalists - one from each state - high-tech equipment and a four-day training session in New York before sending them home to create reports in video and online formats about major topics of political and social interest.

Perkins, a journalism student at Casper College, said he heard about the program from a professor, and even though he thought it was a long shot, he sent in writing samples and a video. Perkins said he was a late addition to the program, noting that MTV "kind of forgot Wyoming was a state."

Perkins said he hopes to use his time as a member of "Street Team '08" to give Wyoming youth a voice by writing about issues that are important to them.

"I think there's a difference between what kids care about and what adults think kids care about," Perkins said. "Kids are really getting involved in what's going on outside of America. People have this misconception about kids that they don't care what's going on in their world and I want to change that. Because, being a pretty young guy and hanging out with young people, I know that they've got tremendous opinions and I think they just need a forum to give those opinions. Hopefully, I can be that forum."

Perkins, a film critic for Casper College's newspaper, recently turned in his first video report, on the "invisible children" of Uganda, and a program called "Schools for Schools" that helps to build schools for Ugandan children. He hopes to work on other international stories, but also plans to write about Wyoming-based issues like the state's drive to curb methamphetamine use and the 10th anniversary of the Matthew Shepard case.

"The trick is just talking to kids and finding out what they care about, then doing those stories," Perkins said.

Contact city reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com

Local spin

NAME: Nick Perkins

AGE: 20

HOMETOWN: Casper

OCCUPATION: MTV citizen journalist

WHY HE DOES IT: "I like telling stories, especially stories that people don't see a lot. Especially in Wyoming, all people know about is Matthew Shepard and meth, and that's cool, but there's so much more to Wyoming than that."

AGE: 20

HOMETOWN: Casper

OCCUPATION: MTV citizen journalist

WHY HE DOES IT: "I like telling stories, especially stories that people don't see a lot. Especially in Wyoming, all people know about is Matthew Shepard and meth, and that's cool, but there's so much more to Wyoming than that."]]>