Vermont Intercultural Semesters

Radio Ladakh

The VIS program in radio and print journalism was inaugurated in 2006 with the aid of Chris Albertine from Vermont Public Radio and Greg Sharrow of the Vermont Folklife Center, who spent two weeks in March at SECMOL with VIS Director Curtis Koren to work with VIS students and teachers on documentary field research techniques, and the technical aspects of interviewing and collecting sound for radio.

The quality of the practice radio pieces, and the enthusiasm of the students for documentary journalism/storytelling, confirms that a VIS focus on print and radio journalism is an excellent catalyst for getting students into the community, and that training in radio reporting makes students better writers. As Joe Richman writes in Teen Reporter Handbook: How to Make Your Own Radio Diary,"The limitation of radio is actually its greatest strength: there are no pictures. Radio forces you to be creative and pay attention to words, sound and language.

Listen to Spring 2011
Audio Postcards

Dinner with Kylie

Energy with Jake

Food with Taylor

Milking with Alana

Tea Time with Katrina

Washing Clothes with Caroline

Radio requires you to be not just a journalist, but a poet and a good storyteller."

The journalism project is now a feature of all of our unique interdisciplinary and place-based programs. We see it as an excellent reflective assessment, and a way to meet VIS goals. These include: gain a better awareness of ourselves, our values and ethics, through exposure to "otherness": expose students to the environmental, cultural, social and political realities of local communities at home and abroad; and promote the values and skills of listening, observing, critical thinking, and questioning.

The VIS program in radio and print journalism was further developed with assistance from some of the best radio producers in America. For instance, we benefited from the assistance of Amy O’Leary, a graduate of the SALT Institute for Documentary Studies and a former producer at This American Life, who joined VIS to teach techniques of radio production, interviewing, and building stories. We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Amy O'Leary, who conducted workshops with the VIS group before they left for Ladakh recently, and covered types of radio projects, audio equipment, interviewing and editing techniques. Amy traveled with VIS Director Curtis Koren to Ladakh in to Fall of 2006 to work with the VIS group on editing their audio pieces.