Each year college students across the country are invited to tell powerful stories through sound in NPR’s College Podcast Challenge, which highlights emerging audio journalists and storytellers. This year the excitement of “March (Audio) Madness” brought together some of the most creative student podcasts in the country. Among the finalists is a familiar voice – someone the ThunderWord’s newsroom staff is lucky enough to call a co-worker, student, and friend: Evelyn Rissell.
Rissell has been a ThunderWord staff reporter and editor for the past year, and this academic year has been the producer, writer, and host for the ThunderWord’s own biweekly podcast, the ThunderPod.
The NPR podcast scholarship challenge is designed to give students a chance to explore audio storytelling and provide a platform to showcase their work. Participants submit their original podcasts that can range from investigative journalism to personal narratives to documentary style storytelling.
Rissell’s Podcast titled “People Like Us” is available to stream on SoundCloud.
Being named a finalist is a testament not only to talent but also to motivation and craft. To produce a compelling podcast requires a magnitude of creativity mixed with skill, which Rissell demonstrates throughout her piece. She exemplifies careful research and thoughtful interviewing. Rissell said, “The prompts for the scholarship were both simple and complex, they wanted a compelling story from your life, whatever that may be.
So I took an afternoon and thought of the facets of the community I valued the most. The picture that became clearest was my monthly book club my husband and I go to. We’ve laughed together, opened up to one another and have had meaningful conversations that help me get by in the world. So I wanted to share that with anyone that would listen.”
Highline has nurtured the level of dedication and creativity reflected in this recognition, and it’s even more rewarding to see those qualities awarded on a national level. Rissell has continued to be an example for the community and her commitment to student journalism is inspiring.
While being questioned on her work, she explained her process: “I spent over 50 hours recording, re-recording, mixing, and editing this podcast. Every second felt exciting, like during it all I was working towards a dream that I’ve held for a long time.” Rissell’s podcast stands as an example of how a student’s voice can contribute meaningful stories to the broader media landscape.
Highline College is the only community college represented among the finalists in this year’s challenge. There were over 200 submissions received by the NPR judging panel including submissions from ivy league institutions such as Duke and Princeton University (who only received honorable mentions), placing Rissell in direct competition among students from universities across the country.
Rissell shared her experience on the moment she received the news, “I was at work when I got an email saying ‘Congratulations’ and my heart started beating a million miles a minute. I scrolled though and got a vague idea that I had made it into the top 10. From there I text[ed] anyone that I thought would want to know. It was so exciting and overwhelming. I felt like they must’ve made a mistake but when I saw my name on the NPR article it settled in that it was real.”
Rissell continued, “I am an adult starting over in [my] career and education. There have been so many moments of doubt and insecurity in this process. So, this feels like acknowledgement that I can do this. My aspirations, while they still have a long way to go, are something real and I’ve got something to offer.
“I feel immense pride in Highline, the educators and staff that have helped me along the way, and especially having the newsroom during my time here. The ThunderWord has given me a space to write, and be taken seriously. More than that, having the ThunderPod, getting the experience of managing it, writing every episode and then recording it gave me the practical skills I needed to make it this far. I’m so grateful to have this time in my life, and I’m excited to keep doing things with this knowledge.”
For our campus community, this recognition is something to celebrate and didn’t happen by accident. It highlights the talent emerging from the college, and the newsroom, that reminds us that impactful storytelling can come from anywhere. Especially from a student with an idea and the courage to share it.