KALW Audio Academy Announces 2014-2015 Class of Radio Journalism Trainees
By Guest Blogger Holly Kernan, KALW News Director
Last year, KALW public radio, in partnership with the Association for Continuing Education (ACE), launched a 10-month intensive radio journalism training program: the KALW Audio Academy. This year, KALW is about to welcome ten new trainees into the Audio Academy, which will commence its new year this September.
The Audio Academy will lead these participants through weekly coursework comprehensively covering all aspects of radio journalism. KALW staff and other notable media producers will lead workshops on researching, reporting, interviewing, writing, voicing and sound design. Trainees will work closely with reporters and editors to create original feature stories for broadcast on the award-winning nightly news and culture show Crosscurrents.
Drawing from its rich history as the oldest non-commercial FM station west of the Mississippi, KALW is committed to bringing new voices to the air and empowering the next generation of public media. The Audio Academy is a continuation of that long-term goal, creating a multicultural and multigenerational space for sharing stories about, for and by people living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
More than 50 people from around the country applied for the Audio Academy, representing a diverse pool including journalists, sound artists, design consultants and people who just love public radio. Of the many talented applicants, ten were chosen to be part of the Audio Academy Class of 2014-15.
Introducing the KALW Audio Academy Class of 2014-15:
Olivia Cueva has been running around with audio equipment since she was 14-years-old. She is a south Berkeley native passionate about producing journalism that gives people the tools to tell their own stories. She received her Bachelor of Science in Broadcast Journalism at Brooklyn College and is currently a facilitator at StoryCorps.
Jack Detsch is a 2013 graduate of the George Washington University, where he earned a B.A. in International Affairs. Inside the Beltway, Jack interned for Senator Dianne Feinstein, the State Department, and NPR’s Washington Desk, where he assisted in coverage of the Occupy movement, Capitol Hill and campaign finance reform. Since returning to the Bay Area, Jack has re-engaged his radio roots, filing spots for KQED Radio and audio essays for The Monocle Daily. In his spare time, Jack enjoys ruining perfectly good shoes in the Amazon, attempting thick biographies and trying to grill steak without burning down the house.
Marcy Fraser is a native San Franciscan, a registered nurse currently working with a local hospice, a volunteer at a women’s jail, and a member of the board of directors of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. She is an avid radio listener, current events follower, cyclist and open water swimmer.
Chris Hambrick is a wordsmith and artist who builds community through the arts. She is the marketing director for Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, a facilitator with StoryCorps, and a managing member of Rock Paper Scissors, an Oakland based community arts collective. In her spare time, she runs the audio blog White Rabbit Story Hour and enjoys Oakland life with her husband and two fluffy cats.
Hannah Kingsley-Ma was born and raised in San Francisco. After graduating from Kenyon College in rural Ohio, she worked as the editorial assistant for a new American travel series called Wildsam Field Guides, where she helped produce the San Francisco edition full of oral testimonies, illustrated maps and essays written by Bay Area authors. She has interned at KQED’s Forum and tutored at 826 Valencia. She is also a hopeless bookworm who feels strongly about dumplings and fog.
Alexis Luna-Torres was born and raised in the city of Richmond. She double majored in Journalism and Cultural Communications at New York University. She has worked for social and economic justice with a focus on labor issues. With KALW, Luna-Torres hopes to tell well-researched, artistic stories about the working class and Latino and Chicano culture.
Marlo McKenzie is writer / filmmaker who grew up in metro Detroit. She’s studied language in France, worked in theater in Germany and co-founded a video production company that trains homeless youth in Australia. Since making San Francisco her home, she’s produced a beta iPhone app and walking tour for Devils Tower National Monument, and worked on documentary films including Standing on Sacred Ground and the web series Choice at Risk.
Lina Misitzis joins the Audio Academy after a year of managing the Mule Radio Syndicate in San Francisco. Previously, she produced the White House-honored podcast DecodeDC, worked as a PA for The Rachel Maddow Show, and was an NBC page in New York. Lina received her BFA in Writing from the Pratt Institute.
Colin Peden is a longtime public radio listener and a first time intern. He is a bassist and musician active on the San Francisco music scene. In a previous career, he studied evolution and worked in conservation biology. An avid walker, he commutes on foot every day to his job as a cooperative grocery store worker-owner in the Outer Sunset. Colin is interested in community and the stories that connect us. He also likes playing with analog recording equipment.
Raja Shah is a longtime Bay Area resident who has incorporated his love of a good story into work ranging from technology to education. At Google, he studied ways to better understand the world through data and co-led the effort to launch Google Trends. In Jerusalem, he taught Palestinian and Israeli high schoolers as part of the MEET (Middle East Education through Technology) program. He’s looking forward to developing his reporting and production skills at the Audio Academy this fall.