Local student podcasters
This week, NPR announced the finalists for their student podcast challenge. Alex Soto, a student at City High School in Tucson, was one of 15 finalists selected from a field of more than 2,000 entries nationwide.
This week, we feature some of the work of City High Radio, a youth radio program at the nonprofit charter high school.
In her piece, Soto searches for answers to the question, "What is the most beautiful sound?"
Last year, the New York Times selected a podcast produced by another City High student as one of the best student podcasts of the year.
The award-winning podcast was produced by Samantha Zazueta, and is titled "My Incarcerated Family."
Paloma Martinez, another City High student, focused her podcast project on water scarcity in the desert. Her piece is titled "A Crisis in the Desert."
Zazueta and Martinez graduated from City High in 2019.
Sarah Bromer has been a teacher at City High for 15 years and has been running the youth radio program nearly as long.
"I think one of my very favorite things about teaching this class is that the kids that have spent their entire lives thinking of themselves as great writers are not necessarily the kids who are the best in radio class. I often have kids who come to my class and they are struggling readers and struggling writers and I think sometimes it's easier for them to write in their own voice," Bromer told The Buzz.
"And then I think hearing themselves on the radio and getting all that positive feedback for how powerful their story is — it's something that can be very transformative for a kid who has spent their whole life thinking, 'I'm not a good writer.'"
Hear more from the City High Radio podcast.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.