Applications for the 2024-25 Youth Takeover cohort are now open!
KQED Youth Takeover is April 22-26, 2024. Tune in live and visit the showcase at kqed.org/youthtakeover
Each spring, Bay Area youth take over KQED’s TV, radio and digital channels and have their say about the issues affecting their lives. Now in its 7th season, the KQED Youth Takeover week features vibrant and thoughtful youth voices on shows like Rightnowish, Forum, Arts & Culture, Political Breakdown and Perspectives.
This week-long celebration of youth voice is possible because of a year-long Youth Takeover classroom program that brings KQED’s Youth Media team to Bay Area classrooms and those classrooms to KQED headquarters. More than 300 students, from 14 high school classrooms in 7 Bay Area counties participated in the program.
Meet the 2023-24 Youth Takeover teachers and hear more about what motivates them about the program.
 Fremont High School Leon Sykes: This is our third year participating in the KQED Youth Takeover. It’s been an amazing experience for my students. |
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 Independence High School E. Michael Chelsky: I have worked with Youth Takeover for the last two years. Our students find the program engaging and it fits well with my courses. Hilltop High School Joseph Alter and Peter Lou: Youth Takeover is extremely helpful in training students in sharing their voice and fulfilling a participation requirement in class curriculum. |
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 Kennedy High School Mitzi Pérez-Caro: I would love for students to gain exposure beyond Richmond. We currently partner with the Richmond Pulse, and I would love to expand their stories to the greater East Bay. I am a seventh year teacher finishing my Master’s at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism so that my students can learn core journalistic concepts and share their experiences in what is considered a news desert. |
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 Lincoln High School Jorge Goncalves: My students have participated since the first year, and I love this partnership with KQED Radio and the KQED Education Department. The program has grown and expanded over the years and that is great to see. I want my current students to be able to work with professionals in the radio industry in order to learn to create audio pieces of meaning to them and their communities and that hopefully inspire change. My classes are very hands-on, with lots of student choice for their project topics , and with a strong emphasis on social justice issues. |
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 Mission High School Jose Figueroa: I participated last year and it was a great opportunity for my students to develop critical skills in my Media Arts Classroom. We developed materials for KQED’s Perspectives, and I’d love to push a different program next year. |
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 Open Mind School Rylan Pickett: We wanted to participate in the Youth Takeover Program because we have an inclusive cohort of teens that deserve a platform and the opportunity to advocate for themselves, participate in storytelling, and grow as writers and communicators. |
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 Petaluma High School Jamil Dawsari: I participated in Youth Takeover because my goal is to make our program entirely student-run. I want my students to learn the skills and confidence that can unlock their potential. I also focus on teaching transferable skills — both “hard” in terms of software and equipment knowledge but also “soft” such as teamwork, communication, and management skills. |
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 Piner High School Hollie Retzinger: The Youth Takeover podcasting project pairs very well with my Ethnic Studies curriculum because students are identifying problems in their world and experience, and working together to find ways to address these problems. Students work in groups to conduct original research and create a podcast script for how to address a social problem related to one or more of the 4 types of oppression: institutional, interpersonal, ideological or internalized. Maria de Jesus Rios-Zendejas: I have always sought to make my pedagogy culturally relevant and sustaining, so giving students the option to choose what they share and express in this podcast aligns with this practice very well. My main goal as their teacher this year is to foster a love of learning and encourage my students to express themselves and have their voices heard. I want them to know that they have a wealth of knowledge and power within them, and that their thoughts are important enough to be voiced and uplifted by others. Learning is often one-dimensional for students, and they notice that most of the time the knowledge is attempted to be passed down by their teachers. I want them to realize that they are also experts and that we, their teachers and other adults in society, have a lot to learn from them as well. |
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 Skyline High School Michael Roe: I’ve participated in Youth Takeover, at my previous school John Henry High School. The Youth Takeover resources and the support staff who come on-site have been wonderful and super impactful to amplifying student voices over the year. For me, having public-facing projects where students can share their narratives with the public at large has been so impactful as students are WAY more committed to polishing a creative project to completion when they know it’s possibly going to air on the radio. |
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| Tennyson High School Hayward, Alameda County Explore Tennyson students’ mediaJudith Okolie: I’ve participated in various KQED workshops for over twenty years and have learned so much about media making, student voice and project based learning. I participated in YTO last year and it was an incredible experience for our students. I noticed that student engagement increased and the usual reluctance or shyness I often witness dissipated when they recorded their audio narrative. It was a beautiful moment. |
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 Woodside High School Lexie Pretto and Josh DeBets: Great curriculum. Great support. This will be our school site’s fifth year participating. Kids love it and expect to participate. |