Meet the GPRX Bullying Stories Project Producers!

Several weeks ago, we asked the Generation PRX network to send us pitches on stories about bullying  - and did you all answer the call!  We received a large pile of submissions from youth radio groups around the country.  Our panel of youth and adult producers had the extremely difficult job of selecting just five finalists from the group. 

And here they are!  The youth radio groups below are working with GPRX, producer Catie Talarski and WNPR in Hartford, Connecticut, to turn their pitches into stories that will become part of an hour-long special on bullying.  Each group received a recording kit (including a Sony PCM-M10 recorder and an RE-50 mic, for the tech-curious among you) and Hindenburg Journalist audio editing software. 

We're delighted to work with all of these talented producers, as well as the rest of the GPRX network as the project gets underway.  Stay tuned!

 1. Chloe Chaobal, Alaska Teen Media Institute: Hello! I enjoy writing, reading, making movies, reporting stories, rock climbing, drumming, playing guitar, and going to school (weird, I know, :D)!\

Chloe's Pitch: In the Anchorage School District our teachers use the Aggressors, Victims, Bystanders (AVB) lessons to teach youth about bullying. Are these AVB lessons actually making a difference in the Anchorage Community? Is it a real solution?

2. Cassanova Robinson, ZUMIX Radio: I'm currently producing a story for Generation PRX about Bullying. I'm still in high school and I'm doing a Transmit Radio class at ZUMIX. And you can listen to my radio story at zumixradio.blogspot.com.

Cass's pitch: Getting called Osama Bin Laden. Cass, who is half Indian, talks about what it is like to get called Osama by other students at his school.

3. Iris SanGiovanni, Blunt Youth Radio Project: Iris SanGiovanni is a 17-year-old junior at South Portland High School. She has been a member of WMPG's Blunt Youth Radio for two years. Along with being involved with Blunt, she enjoys playing trumpet in her school's marching and jazz bands.

Iris' pitch: The Psychology of Everyday Bullying: We've all experienced at least one moment where we've bullied another individual, whether intentional or not, but what stopped us from continuing to bully others? Was it our conscience or the feeling of guilt that stopped us?

4. Producer Maddie Neufeld, Middletown Youth Radio Project:  Maddie is a Senior at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and has been co-coordinating the Middletown Youth Radio Project for the past three years. In her summers she has worked with WNYC's Radio Rookies and WBUR's Radio Boston. She is passionate about youth media, education, prison reform and all things audio.

Producer Harry Bartle, Middletown Youth Radio Project: I'm a senior at Wesleyan University that's been involved with our radio station WESU since my freshman year. A couple years ago, a friend and I inherited the administrative/ coordinating jobs at WESU's kids' program, The Middletown Youth Radio Project, and have had a great time working with kids to produce audio pieces of their own since. Every Friday at 6:30 I help kids get their material out on the air during a live show hosted at WESU.

Reporters Destiny Chandler (left) and Alexis Madera, Middletown Youth Radio. Intrepid reporters and residents of Traverse Square.

MYRP's Pitch: Bullying creates a kind of network of social interactions within Traverse Square. Ultimately we will touch on what it means for there to be bullying in a communal space—how does bullying create social hierarchies or even prevent excessive bullying?  

5. Sara Harris, René Ayala and Oscar Rodriguez, Hear in the City and The HeArt Project: Sara Harris is host and senior producer of "Hear in the City: radio realities from the urban landscape" on KPFK 90.7FM in Los Angeles. An audio artist, radio journalist, and educator with 14 years of experience in Los Angeles and Mexico, Sara brings a strong commitment to issues of urban environment, education, public wellness, and urban equality to the forefront of the media conversation.  Sara launched the Los Angeles Bureau of Youth Radio in 2003 and founded the AudioPostales cross-border youth radio project. She holds an M.A. in Specialized Journalism from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. She continues to teach radio and multimedia journalism to teens with award-winning non-profit The HeArt Project.

Sara's pitch: Hear in the City will explore creative solutions to dealing with bullies in the school-to-prison pipeline.  Specifically, students from Roosevelt H.S. in East L.A. will investigate the teen courts, a pretty radical experimental system of allowing enforceable criminal convictions by teens to be judged by a jury of their peers.

Show producer Catie Talarski: Catie Talarski is senior producer of Where We Live, the morning news program on WNPR, Connecticut Public Radio.

She got her start in documentary radio at the Salt Institute in Portland Maine, and works hard to balance her love of talk radio and storytelling. Catie has produced several PRNDI award-winning programs on Where We Live, including coverage of Sexual Assault on College Campuses, Gender Identity, and Childrens Television. In honoring her award-winning 2010 episode about what makes a good neighbor, PRNDI judges wrote that Where We Live “takes a news story and spins it into universal connections for listeners. This program is an inspiring example of how talk programs can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.”

Catie’s also documented end-of-life decisions made by young people with Cystic Fibrosis for NPR’s Hearing Voices, dug into archival tape of artist Romare Bearden for Studio 360, and covered the fast-paced worlds of lawnmower racing and collegiate squash for NPR and PRI’s The World. She worked with the Public Radio Exchange to produce the hour-long youth special BULLIED: Teen Stories from Generation PRX. Catie’s radio features and documentaries have also aired on several NPR affiliate stations. Her foray into magazine writing includes an article about her Polish heritage published in SilverKris, the in-flight magazine of Singapore Airlines.