Growing up in Sonoma County California, I’ve witnessed firsthand the destruction global warming has caused. During my junior year in high school, the city of Santa Rosa was woken from a deep sleep to sounds of sirens and screams from firefighters evacuating entire neighborhoods as wildfires roared through. Since 2017, Sonoma county has experienced wildfires every autumn, exposing the community to the horrors of climate change.
I was extremely excited when I found out I was going to be participating in this year’s NPR Next Generation Radio. I heard about the program when Dean Al Stavisky came in and spoke to my journalism class about the opportunity. Before he could even finish I had already submitted my application, and I’m so glad I did. Before the first day started, my mentor Anh Gray reached out and taught me one of the most valuable lessons in learning what to look for in sources. Continually, she taught me about the finer details of the interview: what to look for, what to get rid of and, for me, the hardest task of keeping quiet and not verbally engaging with the interviewee so their responses are uninterrupted on the tape. The editing and mastering of the audio was another area of interest. Through the frustrations of corrupted files and learning to mix audio, I was still able to develop a great story and learn valuable lessons from Selena Seay-Reynolds!
Whether it’s wildfire destroying my community, or in Marcia’s case, seeing less of her favorite birds; everyone has a story to tell about their experiences with climate change. I learned a lot of valuable skills that I can carry with me into my future career. If I don’t become a rockstar, I plan to bring the skills I learned into a law career with me where I can continue to troubleshoot issues and carry out meaningful conversations through interviews.
