Wildfire Youth Media Initiative

Summer Program (July 15 – August 7)

USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) is launching a high school summer program for students connected to the Pacific Palisades and greater Altadena areas. The Wildfire Youth Media Initiative trains students to collect community stories of the devastating January 2025 wildfires and their aftermath.

Twelve high school students—six with connections to the Pacific Palisades and six to the greater Altadena area—will form a cohort to explore stories of loss and resilience in their own and each other’s communities. As a cohort, students will:

• Learn active listening skills through in-depth interviews of peers and fellow community members.
• Get training in the basic skills of digital journalism in a crisis and the role of journalism in a civic society.
• Engage in community dialogue and explore opportunities for civic participation.
• Collect, preserve and disseminate testimony of the lived experiences of Los Angeles residents during and after the worst fire disaster in the city’s history.

USC Annenberg faculty and professional journalists will teach workshops at USC Annenberg and other locations. Students will lead on-site community listening sessions with multiple participants, including peers and other groups, such as first responders, block captains, journalists, artists, and parents. Students will edit these interviews into podcasts and short-form content for social media and the web, for publication by CCLP and potentially other public media outlets. KCRW, one of Los Angeles’s two NPR member stations, will partner with the initiative.

At the end of the summer initiative, students will have established a repository of community memories that may be preserved by the LA Public Library, USC, or another archival institution. Completion of the program requirements and workshops may include a university honorarium and certificate.

Part of the training will include reporting sensitively on difficult topics as well as protecting your own mental health and practicing skills to promote well-being.

The program dates are July 15 to August 7, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday. There will also be additional listening sessions on two Saturdays, July 19 and July 26. A tentative detailed schedule is below. Students will attend journalism workshops at USC Annenberg during the first, third, and fourth week. During the second week, the cohort will travel off campus to Altadena and the Palisades, where they will interview community members during listening sessions.

CCLP plans to continue the Wildfire Youth Media Initiative into the 2025–2026 academic year, but participation beyond the four-week summer program is optional. The initiative is intended to serve as a replicable model for other communities affected by natural disasters, providing a framework for high school students to help document and tell their community’s stories.

This program is part of CCLP’s Local News and Student Journalism Initiative. The program director is Rebecca Haggerty, professor of professional practice of journalism and associate director of the journalism (BA) program. CCLP is led by Geoffrey Cowan, former director of Voice of America (1994-1996) and former dean of USC Annenberg (1996-2007), who is a university professor of communication and journalism.

Any questions can be directed to program coordinator Talia Abrahamson, taliaabr@usc.edu.

The application is scheduled to open on April 18 and close on May 16. This initiative has no cost for participation.

Application Requirements and Program Details

Application Requirements

• Must be between 16 and 19 years old
• Open to rising and current sophomores, juniors, and seniors
• Must be able to secure your own transportation to USC for all program days
• Prior journalism experience is not required

Program Benefits

• Breakfast and/or lunch provided, depending on schedule
• Tuesday and Thursday class days, with two Saturday listening sessions
• Journalism training from USC professors and graduate and undergraduate students
• Contributions toward a digital community memory archive
• Potential for a university honorarium and certificate, awarded upon successful completion of the program

Program Schedule: July 15 to August 7

Application

Please download and view the application instructions before filling out the application.