The Gospel of NPR by Margaret

The Gospel of NPR by Margaret - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

The Gospel of NPR

Public radio is the gospel of my life. On Sunday mornings, my family and I religiously tune in to New York Times puzzle master Will Shortz's word games. After “church,” I'm first nostalgic from Prairie Home Companion, then enlightened by On Being, and finally, amused by Click and Clack’s antics on Car Talk. And that's just Sundays. I tap my phone throughout the week for my daily bread, the podcast.

My obsession to know, to be informed, began in part because of the language gap in my family. My parents immigrated to the US from China, and seeking a way to learn the English language in the midst of their busy lives, they tuned in to the world of public radio. Listening to these programs exposed my inquisitive mind to new ideas, laying the groundwork to my love for discovery and the craft of telling about it. Shortly after, a news nerd was born.

My junior year, I transferred to a state-run STEM boarding school one hundred miles away from home in the pursuit of discovery. Hardly the place for exploring extracurricular interests, my new school prioritized academics. I loved challenging myself through college-level courses like Differential Equations and Data Structures, meeting new professors, and building friendships. But, due to the strict, academic nature of the institution, the school network blocked iTunes, my source for downloading podcasts, and even barred streaming from NPR’s website as a policy to help students concentrate. It was a true separation of church and state, as I was forced to wait until returning home on the weekends to binge any missed episodes. Although I gained a sense of academic focus, I felt bewildered at my lack of knowledge of the world around me.

But, this lack of external stimulation forced me to look within myself, to consider whether I could turn my school into a community rich with the stories I craved. Opportunities to connect with the backgrounds of my peers struck me as just as exciting, if not more, than the world of public radio I'd grown up with. What if I could try out journalism myself? What if I could connect with the aspirations of those around me, generate discussions about topics of concern, and unite the school not just through academics, but also through the diversity of our passions?

Thus, I launched my school’s first student publication: The Echo. The brainchild of me and two friends, The Echo invites students to write about their interests and interviews faculty and professionals about their work. On one occasion, I interviewed my computer science teacher, Dr. Samadzadeh, about her evolution as a woman in the field. She took us through the isolation she experienced in America, which was foreign to her upbringing in Iran. She felt that students in Iran were exposed to subjects as equals, while the American system failed to treat girls as possible scientific leaders. We traced this formative moment to her strong desire for girls to excel in computer science. Though she never forced her views on us, I remembered feeling empowered by her enthusiasm, despite being only one of three girls in her class.

Through creating a magazine and generating weekly content across all areas of interests, I begin to discover the interwoven webs of thought that form the closest community around me. I begin to understand what makes a story truly compelling—real people and their perspectives.

My fervent desire to discover the world and its stories: this is what defines me. Though I want to pursue engineering and the sciences, the lessons I’ve learned from public radio will stay with me. The art of storytelling guides the way I approach the complex, twisting, and beautiful world around me. I cannot simply be aware; I must create my own understanding, applying what I know one story at a time.