Over the span of six weeks, middle school students from the Fremont Academy in Pomona created a radio show for KSPC that aired April 7. They came to Pomona College’s campus the same day to
celebrate the work they had done.
The radio show was coordinated by Pomona Partners, a community outreach organization sponsored by the Draper Center for Community Partnerships that mentors Fremont Academy students who are between seventh and 12th grade in a non-academic setting. The program focuses on self-realization, empowerment, and social awareness, according to the Pomona website.
Originally, the
radio show was going to follow a “Day in the Life”
format, showing the morning, afternoon, and after-school life of the middle
school students. However, the format changed over the six weeks.
“It ended up
being stories about family, about friendship, about other funny things that
they remembered—it was more natural that way,” David Baxter PO ’16 said.
Baxter has volunteered with Pomona Partners for the past four semesters, and has
been a coordinator for the past three semesters.
“[The academy is] pretty underfunded, which is why the Draper Center connects with it,”
Baxter said. “It’s predominantly Latino.”
Baxter, other Pomona Partners coordinators, and college volunteers meet with Fremont
students every Friday, directing a wide variety of activities, such as
egg drops, newspaper fashion shows, and scrapbooking events.
Baxter said that the radio show was one of the most successful Pomona Partners projects.
“We thought
about it as a way to try to empower students by having a way to
express themselves on the air,” Baxter said. “I feel like the students did feel
empowered.”
The recorded radio show can be found on iTunes under “The Interchange on KSPC,” Episode 4.7.