ACE Spectrum

From the Zombie Apocalypse to Election Day, an Audio Academy Fellow Reflects on Her Experience at KALW

Posted by Martha Sessums on Nov 24, 2020 in ACE Learning Center, ACE School Report, Continuing Education | 0 comments

By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Audience Supported Public Media and Liza Ramrayka, Audio Academy Fellow ‘21

Just wanted to get into a regular groove, sharing what’s going on at KALW. Here are some thoughts from Audio Academy fellow Liza Ramrayka:

What an unforgettable year to start at KALW’s Audio Academy. From pandemic to wildfires to the most consequential election of our times, the past two months (is it really only two months?) have been a whirlwind of Zoom rooms and Slack chats as we’ve embarked on this virtual learning journey. 

As a long form feature writer, I’ve had to completely rethink the way I present my story to get it to fit a one-minute spot. It’s been a challenge! But my patient editors [Ben Trefny and Angela Johnston] and mentor [Hana Baba] have been so generous with their time and advice, guiding me through how to make the story work while still keeping my ‘voice’. 

It’s been exciting to be part of KALW’s election coverage in recent weeks, from getting into the weeds of ballot measures to interviewing community leaders to find out what local voters really care about. A highlight so far has been going live for the station on election night — a little nerve-wracking but made so comfortable thanks to expert KALW coaching [from Marissa Ortega-Welch].   

Throughout all this, my fabulous and talented AA ’21 cohort have made this experience such a joy — from the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ night when we met to pick up recording equipment in San Francisco after a day of orange skies, to sharing stories with my newsroom partner, to offering ProTools help (definitely my nemesis at this point!).  Looking forward to what the next months will bring.

 

“Lockdown” is the Collins Dictionary Word of 2020, but it’s “Vote” to Oakland International High School Students

Posted by Martha Sessums on Nov 16, 2020 in ACE Learning Center, ACE School Report, Continuing Education | 0 comments

By Martha Sessums, President, ACE

Leave it to 2020 to have a word like “lockdown” as the Collins Dictionary Word of the Year. The definition is “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction and access to public spaces.” But hearing and reading conversations with Oakland International High School (OIHS) administrators and students, I think their Word of the Year would be “vote.”

These students and administrators support the state and federal lockdown requirements to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus, but the word lockdown doesn’t define their schoolwork, aspirations for going to college and building a better future, or hiding behind closed doors and ignoring the world.

Instead, while they have learned a lot about the power of voting and how it is an inalienable right to American citizens, they are also active in their education. As they have observed and participated in recent elections, they have learned that the value of a personal vote inspires to give a voice in many levels of their life.

The inspiration about voting probably started in 2016 when the popular vote was for one candidate, but the US Electoral College votes elected another candidate to be president. Originally designed by the Founding Fathers to equalize voting power between populous cities and less-populous rural areas, it was a new concept to many students.

“In the days after, the 12^th grade government class prepared lessons to teach the younger students what had happened during the election – how a president could, in this new country of theirs, lose the popular vote yet still win the election,” said Lauren Markham, Director, OIHS Learning Lab and ACE Learning Center Manager. She spoke in an article in The Bare Life Review with OIHS students and administrators.

Four years later, the lessons about the importance of voting excelled.

“I think voting is one of the most important parts of having your voice heard by a lot of people,” said Bashar Allataifih, a 17-year old OIHS student born in Irbid, Jordan. “Whoever you vote for is the person that will be representing you in something, so you always have to pick carefully.”

“A vote is not a wish, it’s more like a right,” said Ali Alhabil, another student, age 16, born in Yemen and is a U.S. citizen. “…That’s what our role is as citizens: we are trying to make a better world for everyone.”

It’s delightful to see at OIHS that the immigrant student community it supports votes daily in their role in trying to make a better world, not just for everyone but for themselves too. One of the school programs is Dual Enrollment where OIHS students take college level classes to give them not only a head start in college, but to improve their English and math skills.

“Dual enrollment supports with both students with a low level of likelihood of getting their classes done and the intermediate students who struggle with math,” said David Hanson, OIHS Vice Principal. “The focus is on English as a Second Language and math classes in algebra, trigonometry and statistics. Any high school student can sign up.”

The classes are taught online via Zoom during the shelter in place rules in partnership with community colleges. Although students are finding it harder to listen to lectures for hours online, most of them are using dual enrollment to improve their knowledge and skills to help them not only graduate from high school but do a better job in college.

“These students attend high school and many work full-time too,” said Hansen. “Yet these students as a whole want to attend and stay in college.”

The dual enrollment helps these OIHS students meet their goals because they vote for their personal future with hard work, focus on their classes and the benefit of attending college. That’s not just a personal vote. That’s a vote as a citizen in an immigrant community that will make the world better for everyone.

“A community together can make a change,” said Allataifih. “Even if there is nothing changing, it still makes everyone part of your community, which matters. It may take time, but there will come a day (when) things will change.”

Election Reports by KALW Audio Academy Fellows and Grads was Truly By, About and For Local Communities

Posted by Martha Sessums on Nov 11, 2020 in ACE Learning Center, ACE School Report, Continuing Education | 0 comments

By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW, Audience Supported Public Media

It’s been a week since Election Day, 2020. Somehow, as with so many things this year, it already seems like it’s been much longer. While we’re definitely looking ahead, I’d like to take a quick moment to reflect upon how KALW covered the night.

Our station began live broadcasting at 4pm Pacific, with some of our local hosts trading off with NPR‘s journalists in discussing the early returns and unfolding storylines. When polls closed on the West Coast, at 8pm, our elections coverage manager, Sonia Narang, and I took over for three hours of live conversation, interspersed with national reports and analysis.

During that time, we were joined by 20 guest speakers. They included journalists from other outlets with whom we’d partnered on election coverage, community leaders from around the Bay Area with whom we’d worked over the previous several months, and a teenager who activated to get out the vote in her Richmond community.

We also spoke with KALW editors and reporters, including David Boyer (Audio Academy class of 2014), Jeneé Darden, and Teresa Cotsirilos as well as recent summer trainee Vivian Bossieux-Skinner.

The rest of our lineup was made up of current Audio Academy fellows and grads:

Joshua Sirotiak (’20) — California Proposition 19 — Property tax transfers

Sarah Lai Stirland (’20) — California Proposition 18 — Youth voting rights

David Exumé (’21) — Oakland Measure RR — Fines for municipal violations

Carla Esteves (’21) — Berkeley Measure KK — Rewriting the city charter

Andrew JM Garcia (’21) — Berkeley Measure II — Police charter amendment

Liza Ramrayka (’21) — Alameda Measure W — Sales tax to support homeless services

Wren Farrell (’21) — Contra Costa Measure X — Sales tax to support hospital services

Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman (’21) — Fairfield Measure C — Cannabis sales tax

Annelise Finney (’21) — Sonoma Measure P — Law enforcement oversight

Huge props to all of them for their first unscripted live broadcasts! Our coverage was truly by, about, and for the communities we serve. And it was made possible behind the scenes by Angela Johnston (’14), Shereen Adel (’16), and our training manager Marissa Ortega-Welch.

Every single fellow in this year’s class has contributed mightily to our comprehensive election coverage, including our concerted effort on engaging and informing the Bay Area’s lowest voter turnout communities. Scott Carroll (’21) shared some thoughts about his experience so far in the Academy, including the work he did in the field in the lead-up to the election:

When the Audio Academy started this summer — in the midst of the COVID pandemic, with all work, class meetings, and interactions shifted online — I wasn’t sure how well KALW would be able to integrate our new group of fellows as a class of students receiving instruction, and as a group of inexperienced hands stepping into the ongoing operations of the news department.  I’m happy to say the program has been great.  I feel like I’m learning a lot and the staff at the station has been impressively accessible and supportive.  Every week I feel like I have tangible accomplishments, in the form of radio and website content, based off of the things I have been introduced to in our classes.  That’s rewarding!

Most of our classes happen in the form of a Wednesday night Zoom call.  The eight of us in the Audio Academy are joined by a rotating slate of KALW staffers who step up to train us in an area they’re skilled in. It’s ranged from how to correctly use our own audio equipment or the digital recorders and microphones that KALW has loaned us, to how to edit recorded pieces in Pro Tools.  One day a week each of us are also in the newsroom (via Zoom), where KALW staff work with us one on one to help develop, write and record stories for the newscast.

The 2020 Election was a big focus for us.  KALW had identified the voter precincts in each Bay Area county with the lowest voter turnout.  As Audio Academy fellows we were paired up and assigned one of these precincts to learn more about — to discover things like: what was the makeup of the people living in the area, and who are the community organizations that serve them. On air we were involved in reporting short stories on the ballot measures in each city and county around the Bay, and then in distributing a printed guide to these ballot measures to the precincts the Audio Academy fellows had investigated.

Two weeks before Election Night I was in Fairfield, California, with a heavy canvas tote bag emblazoned with the station’s logo (clearly repurposed from donor thankyou gift supplies) loaded with voter guides written specifically for that community.  I walked door to door to homes and apartments in the small precinct immediately off of the highway, alongside the boulevard leading to Travis Air Force Base.  Unlike my home town of Berkeley, I saw no election signs in the yards of the homes I visited, but the people I encountered seemed genuinely pleased to be getting information on the election.  After the sun set, I banded up the leftover guides into bundles of 100 and dropped them at the neighborhood’s principal churches – the main community organizations within the precinct.

As we think back upon how we covered this election, I’m very curious to see if the percentages of people voting in the precincts, we targeted increased. We’ve seen that nationwide, but the preliminary numbers in California seem a bit lower than they were in recent elections. As we’ve seen, though, it can make a big difference when you wait for the final results.