Meet KUOW's summer 2022 RadioActive youth producers

KUOW's RadioActive Youth Media is proud to offer our 19th annual summer introductory workshop for teens. In our first hybrid in-person and virtual workshop, seventeen teens, aged 15-18, spent one week learning about radio journalism and audio storytelling.

In the one week Intro to Radio Journalism Workshop, youth participants recorded interviews, wrote scripts, voiced their narration at the KUOW studios, and edited it all together to produce their own short radio profile stories. Subscribe to the RadioActive podcast to hear the stories, which will be released in early spring 2023.

Ada Walther (Garfield High School, Central District)

Ada Walther loves psychology and writing. Ada finds ghost stories fascinating (especially gothic ones), and loves a good queer romance novel. Ada wants to become a therapist and/or a writer in order to help people heal and empower themselves. She has been in choir since middle school, and loves different forms of telling stories. Ada is also a part of Urban Artworks as an apprentice, loving being in communities full of people who are cool and down to earth.

Anjali Einstein (North Creek High School, Bothell)

Anjali Einstein is a young South Asian woman who has a passion and excitement for journalism. She enjoys hobbies such as baking, reading and music to keep her creative mind engaged. Anjali is also involved in many different clubs and activities such as orchestra, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), and Indian classical dance. She hopes to develop and perfect her radio journalism skills to tell the perfect story.

Carter Ortiz (Meadowdale High School, Lynnwood)

Carter Ortiz is a funny, nerdy and kind kid who loves to watch movies and make funny YouTube videos.

Caden LaMar (Scriber Lake High School, Broadview)

Caden LaMar is a junior at Scriber Lake High School.

Dashiell Pinck (Interlake High School/Running Start, Bellevue)

Dash Pinck is an empathetic, passionate, and determined storyteller above all else. She is known for acting and doing behind-the-scenes tech work at her local theater, in addition to helping lead her school’s GSA club. Dash has enjoyed many kinds of media from a young age, but one of her favorites is podcasts, specifically table-top RPG actual plays. She is very excited to meet everyone at RadioActive and create stories with you all!

Evelyn Jiang (Interlake High School, Bellevue)

Evelyn Jiang attended Interlake High School and is planning on attending UC Irvine in the fall. They grew up in Issaquah and Bellevue. Their favorite mediums of self-expression include writing and fashion.

Gideon Hall (Kentridge High School, Kent)

Gideon Hall is a young, queer AP student with a great love for learning and a healthy dose of both curiosity and ambition. At school, he tries to take all the difficult classes he can and participate in all the extracurriculars his schedule can possibly fit. She's always pushing herself and looking for a challenge. For the future, they are interested in everything from journalism to library sciences to aerospace engineering, but whatever they do, they know it'll be great.

Hayden Andersen (Chief Sealth International High School, Arbor Heights)

Hayden Andersen is an avid enjoyer of music and art. He plays Alto Saxophone in both concert and marching band, and Tenor Saxophone in Jazz band. He is currently playing in the All-City marching band program. Outside of school, Hayden is a member of Boys Scouts troop 284, where he is striving for the rank of Eagle Scout.

Idrissa Gaye (Middle College High School, South Seattle)

Some of Idrissa Gaye’s interests include reading and writing, primarily on realistic fiction. Idrissa has a major passion for watching and playing sports, such as basketball, football, soccer, boxing and a few others. Idrissa enjoys discussing, predicting and writing about specific sporting events or things happening within a specific sport. As a result of this, Idrissa also enjoys playing video games, specifically sports video games.

Indigo Mays (Holy Names Academy, Othello)

As a Black woman in Seattle, Indigo Mays tries to encompass her identity in all aspects of her life. She loves to read books of most genres, but especially loves Black literature; both the classics and the more current works. Indigo has an interest in the field of law, hoping to make arbitration more fair and equitable for the BIPOC community. Currently, she is an attorney on her school's Mock Trial team, and is one of the leaders of Holy Names Acacemy’s Black Student Union. Indigo believes that journalism is essential to a more inclusive world, and is beyond excited to be a part of RadioActive.

Josie Jansons (Chief Sealth International High School, Highland Park)

Josie Jansons has always loved learning about new things. When she was younger it was mostly through books and listening to the radio, but over quarantine it transitioned into more of an interest in the news and current events. She also loves spending time with her friends, family and two cats. Josie hopes to grow up and have a career in something that always has some new kind of experience waiting, and she hopes that learning more about the radio will help get her there.

Kea Lani Diamond (Thomas Jefferson High School and Puget Sound Skills Center, Kent)

Kea Lani Diamond is a young mixed Filipino-Irish American woman who has been listening to NPR for as long as she can remember. She has an interest in radio journalism and marine biology. She's a swimmer and snowboarder, and she also loves singing and going on adventures with her family and friends.

Lucas Deng (Shorecrest High School, Shoreline)

Lucas Deng is an American-born Chinese teen who's interested in learning about new things. In his free time, Lucas plays soccer and chess. While he's not very good at writing bios, he would like to learn about the impact of storytelling and radio.

McKenna Kilayko (Franklin High School, Mount Baker)

McKenna Kilayko is someone who yearns to learn more, whether that be through first-hand experiences or the internet. She is curious about the history, art, and music of the world, which is why she aspires to travel more in the future. McKenna also enjoys listening and playing music, constantly inspired through her headphones or when she's learning a new piece on the violin. She is intrigued at the idea of a career in journalism and is excited by the anticipation of what's to come through this RadioActive workshop experience.

Micah Riggio (Garfield High School, Rainier Beach)

Micah Riggio is creative and adventurous, and he loves creating podcasts and home movies. He is very passionate about music and has been playing cello since 4th grade. Micah also loves math and doing yo-yo tricks. He’s looking forward to doing more radio stuff and telling cool stories.

Sadeen Al Ziyad (Nathan Hale High School, Lake City)

Sadeen Al Ziyad is a young Arab Muslim who is compassionate and loving. She is kind and truly loves her community. She is hardworking and her passion to serve others is driven by her leadership and advocacy skills. She has to let you know that she loves turtles and the color lavender and that it is not an unhealthy obsession. Sadeen will attend the University of Washington in the fall.

Terina Papatu (Mountlake Terrace High School, Mountlake Terrace)

Terina Papatu is a big reader, preferring romance novels over anything. While being somewhat responsible at home, Terina is considered "child-like" by her friends (in a nice way, of course). She signed up for RadioActive due to her love for writing but realized that a career in journalism would be way better than she thought. Her interests include reading, cooking, and she can talk for hours at a time without getting bored.

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RadioActive is KUOW's radio journalism and audio storytelling program for young people.

Find RadioActive on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and on the RadioActive podcast.

Support for KUOW's RadioActive comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center and BECU.