Banner After School

It's a different kind of after-school program. Think of it less as a club and more like a real-world internship.

You'll be working as a youth reporter looking into issues that are affecting your community. This spring, the Radio 101 after-school program will be looking into the idea of Social Media and Mental Health. How does spending a lot of time on social media affect our mood and mental well-being? Can constant scrolling through social media contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation? And much more! How you interpret the theme, is up to you.

Throughout the semester, you will learn how to use the equipment professional journalists use, how to tell stories that captivate your audience (and potential college board admissions and/or employers), and you will get to hear yourself on the air! Yeah, that’s right. The best stories will be broadcast on 88.5 WFDD. And if they are really, really good (which we know they will be), we’ll pitch them to NPR, on which more than 30 million people will listen to your voice telling a story…pretty cool, huh?

While the after-school program is free and open to high school students from all over the area, we do require a certain level of commitment to participate:

  • The program meets every Wednesday from 4:30pm to 5:30pm at the WFDD studios.
  • We will begin on March 6th and we will finish in early May. Missing one week is like missing a whole month of school. A LOT happens in just one week.

What you need to participate:

  • An idea of how you interpret the theme for this fall. It doesn't have to be a full pitch, but just a sense of the story you'd like to work on. The story can come from your own experience or just an interest that you might have. For example, you might want to know what is like for a teenager to deal with the changes that come with leaving high school. Or maybe, is a story about a changing part of your hometown ...
  • You should be comfortable writing. A three to four-minute story roughly translates to a 500-word essay. 
This is your pitch. In 300-400 words, tell us why you are the best person for the job!
This doesn't mean that YOU WILL HAVE TO do these stories, it's just a way to see what moves you to do this.
How did you hear about this program?