/ Modified feb 26, 2025 6:46 p.m.

The Class of 2024: Student essays about graduating in a time of uncertainty

Also on Arizona Spotlight: TIHAN provides kindness and support to those living with HIV or AIDS; and a new Ten-Minute Drama "Haricot Verts."

Class of 2024 event hero clean Arizona Spotlight presents "The Class of 2024."

Arizona Spotlight

February 27, 2025

NPR
(Download MP3)

Featured on the February 27, 2025 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

  • More from “The Class of 2024” essay project, as Tucson High graduate Madelynn shares the frustrating emptiness of pandemic isolation, and the discouraging experience of using remote learning. This essay series will culminate in a live theatrical experience this weekend on Saturday, March 1st at 6:30 pm at Tucson High.

Madelynn class of 24 hero Madelynn from "The Class of 2024."
AZPM

group class of 2024 hero Art Almquist and six of the graduates who wrote essays about their high school experiences.
AZPM

  • Learn about the work of TIHAN, the Tucson Interfaith HIV / AIDS Network, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary of providing assistance and hope in our community. Tony Paniagua has an interview with TIHAN executive director Scott Blades, and Tim Haver, a local resident living with HIV who has received services from TIHAN.

tihan azpm hero Scott Blade, the executive director of TIHAN and a local resident, Tim Haver who is living with HIV in AZPM's studio.
AZPM

TIHAN logo unsized VIEW LARGER Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network logo.
courtesy of TIHAN
ten minute dramas Twenty-four plays, for reading or performing. In ten minutes or less. With Ten-Minute Dramas, Alejandro Canelos gets right to the point.
design by Gabriela Fleming
  • And in a new Ten-Minute Drama written by Alejandro Canelos, find out how quickly a blind date can go awry, when a plate of green beans becomes the first of a series of disasters in “Haricot Verts."

haricot vests green bean hero "Haricot Verts" in Alejandro Canelos' Ten-Minute Drama.
Sylvia Canelos

haricot verts AZPM hero Matthew Staples as the waiter, Michael Craig as the restaurant patron, Betsy Kruse Craig as the restaurant manager, Alejandro Canelos reading stage direction, Emily Fuchs as Michaela, and Sean Hazen as Kermit (from left to right) in "Haricot Verts."
AZPM

Arizona Spotlight
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