York teen wins podcast challenge

by Josh Crotzer

Natalia Salas of York, a stu­dent at West­min­ster Cataw­ba Chris­t­ian School, was one of three stu­dents to win a $5,000 schol­ar­ship in an audio pod­cast com­pe­ti­tion spon­sored by South Carolina’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives.

Salas, along with Abi­gail Crum­ley of Berke­ley and Emma Rose Rad­cliff of San­tee, cre­at­ed an 8‑minute audio essay about how young peo­ple can impact their local com­mu­ni­ties in a tur­bu­lent time. The group inter­viewed oth­er youth from across the state who are mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in their home­towns.

“As we observed these young women, we have answered the ques­tion of how youth can impact their com­mu­ni­ties,” says Salas.

Their win­ning pod­cast was select­ed by a pan­el of jour­nal­ists that includ­ed Avery Wilks of The Post and Couri­er news­pa­per, Ken­neth Moton of ABC News and Dawndy Mer­cer Plank of WIS News. Each mem­ber of the win­ning team received $5,000 schol­ar­ships.

A total of 37 high school stu­dents from across South Car­oli­na com­pet­ed in the chal­lenge after hav­ing been select­ed by their local coop­er­a­tive to par­tic­i­pate in the Coop­er­a­tive Youth Sum­mit, a four-day lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence that offers stu­dents the chance to learn more about state gov­ern­ment and elec­tric coop­er­a­tives. Salas’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Coop­er­a­tive Youth Sum­mit was spon­sored by York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.

All of the stu­dents’ pod­casts are avail­able online.