KALW Audio Academy Students Prove that Community Radio Stories Make Connections

By Holly Kernan, News Director, KALW public radio, 91.7 FM

Last month, Audio Academy first year student Rachel Wong produced a lovely story about supporting foster youth through college. You can hear it here:

A starting place for former foster youth

She followed up with them to share the story and found out that a San Francisco technology company had heard the piece and was making a major donation to support the Guardian Scholars program.

It was wonderful news and we heard about it by accident, really. One of our goals in the Community Newsroom/Audio Academy is to connect people through stories. We know anecdotally that this happens, but we don’t often hear the concrete stories.

In other Audio Academy news, student Charlotte Silver produced this story about AirBnB and it’s getting a lot of hits:

The New Gold Rush: How tourist rentals are affecting San Francisco’s housing market

Fascinating times in the City!!

Speaking of which, second year Audio Academy fellow Liz Pfeffer reported on community gardening and matchmaking–now that’s a delicious combination:

Must love broccoli: A community garden plays matchmaker

I look around the classroom at the Audio Academy sometimes and just marvel at the talent that surrounds me. Astonishing and inspiring!