CSB+SJU students place third

On Feb. 10, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) held an inaugural showcase titled “College Emerging Voices” at the Minneapolis MPR headquarters.

CSB+SJU students Da’sha Gray, Bailey Link and Maxwell McCoy worked together and won third place in the competition.

Ideas and projects were presented to a judging panel consisting of individuals from MPR News, the Glen Nelson Center, The Current, YourClassical and the MPR and American Public Media (APM) board of trustees.

This showcase and competition challenged students from across the state to create an idea to improve their community and engage younger individuals in local media.

MPR hosted several workshops leading up to the event, engaging with students and identifying the opportunities that can be found in public media.

With over 80 students participating in these workshops, six teams were chosen to present in MPR’s showcase.

MPR staff and community members acted as supervisors to support the chosen teams and lead them to success.

The CSB+SJU team titled their project “Get in the Know”, a proposal that was grounded in the idea that young people are the audience of right now, not the future of public radio.

Get in the Know is a conversation-based show hosted by young voices that brings together two student guests who may hold opposing views on a timely topic.

This show would invite these two students into conversation, welcoming a healthy dialogue alongside an expert.

According to the CSB+SJU student’s proposal to MPR, they described this show saying, “the goal is not to win arguments. It is to model thoughtful
disagreement, accountability and curiosity.”

Another element to their show is that student guests are not only there to have conversation with each other, but to put the expert on the spot and ask direct questions.

This offers a balanced dynamic between young voices and experts, mainly centering around the younger perspectives.

Student participation drives each episode as they have the opportunity to vote on topics, submit questions and be guests.

This proposed show would be featured across YouTube, Spotify and public radio stations, utilizing digital platforms to connect with younger audiences and expand the reach of public media.

Gray, a senior at CSB, was one of the third place team members representing CSB+SJU at this year’s MPR showcase and competition.

When asked about what excited her most about this opportunity, she shared that it was exciting to bring Get in the Know to life in a creative way and seeing audience reactions in real time.

Gray served as the narrator for their demonstration of Get in the Know alongside teammates Link and McCoy, in which their presentation at MPR headquarters ended with a live demo of what the show would look like.

In reflection of this experience, Gray said, “It was really meaningful to see all the time and intention we put into the project come together in a way that felt real and impactful.”

Gray first got involved by attending MPR’s Voices for Impact workshop at the Reinhart Learning Commons. Ethan Wittrock, an Instructional Technology Specialist at CSB+SJU and advisor for both Johnnie Bennie Media and Extending the Link, introduced this opportunity to Gray.

After pitching show ideas to her group alongside three other teams, Gray and her teammates were notified that they were selected to advance to the finals at MPR.

When asked about her main takeaway from this event, Gray said, “Gen Z still wants to be informed and involved in what is happening around us. We just need more spaces that invite us into the conversation and allow us to share what truly matters to us, as well as how we prefer to receive information and entertainment. We are not just the future generation. Our impact is happening right now.”

Link, another team member, shared how she learned a lot about the new efforts MPR is taking to increase youth involvement in public media.

Link’s entrepreneurship course taught by Professor Bardia Bijani influenced her participation in this project as students who got involved would receive extra credit.

Due to her team making it to the MPR showcase, Link was able to see the entrepreneurial mindset firsthand that she learned about in class.

“I thought the whole process that MPR was taking by visiting local college campuses, talking to students in person about their ideas and inviting them to their headquarters was very innovative and showed a lot of initiative from MPR employees,” Link said.