Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy is a Kindergarten through 8th grade Chicago Public elementary school located on the Northwest side of Chicago in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
For the 2022 - 2023 school year, the 8th graders were given the unique opportunity to use what they learned in their social studies class about under-reported stories to create their very own podcast. These podcasts focus on individual students' lives as well as the lives of the people in their community. Each podcast focuses on telling a story that the world needs to hear and gives voice and attention to an issue that deserves to be heard.
The students in the 8th grade class of 2023 worked hard to tell their stories so they could leave behind their legacy to their school community.
Students were most inspired by this quote by Khadija Sharife, an award winning investigative journalist from South Africa. when she says, “Our stories may not individually change the world (although some do). But putting what happened on the record to be reckoned with, built on and maybe used later to spark change - that’s more than a job. It’s holding up a mirror to the society we live in and contrasting it with the kind of society in which we want to live.”