NPR is kicking off its fourth annual College Podcast Challenge. The contest gives students an opportunity to share their stories with the NPR audience and beyond, and compete for a $5,000 cash prize.
The NPR Student Podcast Challenge began six years ago, with submissions open to grades 4 through 12, and more recently, opened up to college students.
The podcast challenge provides a platform for young people across the country to showcase their creativity with the audio medium.
NPR’s Steve Drummond and Janet Woojeong Lee, who oversee the challenge, say they’re excited to receive submissions each year.
“We’ve had many great entries. We’ve had students from all 50 states, from community colleges and four year schools, and big giant universities,” Drummond said. “The fun part of it is we get very personal and very rich storytelling from these students.”
2023 Finalist Brandon Kondritz, from Northwestern University, created a podcast titled “The Day I Ditched My Devices.” His piece explored what it’s like to spend a day completely unplugged from technology.
Kondritz wove together his own voice memos, narration and ambient sound with interviews with experts for a day-in-the-life-style story. Lee said that his podcast was a great example of a student making a project out of something that’s on their mind.
“Focus on finding whatever story that you’re passionate about and want to talk about, having a good outline to work with, and not being too scared, even if you’re a little new to audio editing,” Lee said.
Student submissions vary greatly, from people who are journalism students to those who have no prior experience. Lee and Drummond encouraged anyone who is interested to try.
“Go for it,” Drummond said. “You can do this with nothing more than a smartphone, a laptop computer and some basic, free software.”
Submissions are due Jan. 10.