WMSE
Advocating for and increasing participation in educational non-profits through the power of radio
Working with the MSOE campus radio station, WMSE, and local non-profit organizations, we have set out to create a podcast series highlighting a variety of non-profits which seek to improve the quality of education and living in communities in and around Milwaukee.
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After researching non-profits and learning from WMSE’s background in public service announcements, we realized an issue many non-profits have: limited budgets. By creating this podcast series, we will be putting the name of organizations on the radio which may not have had the opportunity to otherwise do so.
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The goal we have for this project is increasing community awareness of the efforts going on around them to improve education. Every community has stake in education, as it shapes the present and future members of our society. By generating awareness of the organizations we are working with, we hope to see increased participation in said organizations from both students and volunteers.
Our Partners
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CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT AN ORGANIZATION!
TIMELINE
QUARTER 1
Development and Learning
In the first quarter, we were learning about different organizations throughout Milwaukee, going off campus to learn more about the City of Milwaukee, and beginning to think about what we saw ourselves doing with our project: what did we want to accomplish with our platform?
QUARTER 2
Getting the Gears Turning
In the winter quarter, it was time to start thinking about what we wanted our project to focus on. We decided, since we are students ourselves and understand the hardships students and schools face, that we should focus our podcast series on educational nonprofits. Using a SWOT and TOWS analysis, looking at examples of other informational podcast series, and working with our community partner, we were able to decide what we wanted our series to look like. This allowed us to start interviewing community partners across Milwaukee.
QUARTER 3
Icing on the Cake (Almost)
In the third quarter, we had one goal in mind: get podcasts produced. We. effectively created a timeline o follow that would have our podcasts finished by the end of the school year, and ready for WMSE to play on the radio!
However, the coronavirus pandemic hit just as we were hitting our strides. So, after moving home and getting acclimated to the online learning situation, we were ready to focus on our project again. Unfortunately we now had to reschedule our interviews and were unable to conduct any in person.
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Fortunately, none of our community partners were affected by the coronavirus to the point where they couldn't interview. We conducted the virtual interviews and are now working hard to get the production quality podcasts finished.
Quarter 3 was the quarter that we learned the most. We obviously faced quite a few. challenges with the shift to online school, and our group came together and learned how to adapt to a situation that we were not expecting. Losing out on a week or two of pr ogress is also. something that we had to overcome: we cranked up the production, scheduled the interview dates as early as possible, and at the time of writing are still working hard to get the podcast produced to be ready to air on the radio.
The most important things to come out of this project for all of us are realizing that things rarely are going to go to plan, how to overcome that, and how powerful a positive attitude is. All of interview subjects were extremely optimistic about their orograms despite the uncertainty that of schools resuming in the near future. They work hard to make sure their still accomplishing the best work possible even in uncertain times, and that's something our group really learned from. While we saw how amazing these organizations are, we ultimately realized it's the people that make the program what they are. This is important for our group as our goal is to get more passionate people involved with these groups, and knowing how much of an impact each and every volunteer has has made this project very fulfilling.
"It's neat to see the journey."
Barbara Klocko of Junior Achivement on what makes her work so satisfying
IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE AND WANT TO GET INVOLVED WITH ONE OF THE EFFORTS HIGHLIGHTED...
... then please consider reaching out! You can directly apply to be a volunteer through the websites linked above, or you can reach out to any of the group members (see below) and we will happily put you in touch with our contacts at the organizations! Each organization we interviewed made it clear that they will work around your scehdule, and you can decide the commitment. There are also temporary volunteer opportunities if you aren't sure you can commit for the future! We highly encourage you to check out at least one organization!
KAYHAN KHANDAN
I'm an Architectural Engineer and why I wanted to work with WMSE was I thought it would be interesting to work with audio as our medium. Visiting the radio station made me excited to work with them.
The most important thing I took away from this project is how easy it is to connect amd reach out to the community.
BEN GRAMBSCH
I am an Industrial Engineering Major here at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. I am in numerous clubs at school such as Engineers without Borders and the MSOE Investment and Entrepreneurship club. I came to Milwaukee looking for a unique experience with a lot of different people. This project has helped me meet a bunch of different people in volunteering community in Milwaukee and opened my eyes to the good that comes from local nonprofits. The problems that the people we interviewed are facing are some of the biggest problems out there and I think that the work they do helps out the future of this city in a number of ways.
JAKE STRASLER
I am a Software Engineering student here at MSOE, where I am also a member of the cross country/track and field team. I chose to work with WMSE because they have a track record of helping nonprofits in the area, and I think that is so cool. To be able to help organizations that help other people throughout Milwaukee is an awesome opportunity. The biggest sticking point of this project for me was how important a positive attitude is. Interviewing people in the middle of a pandemic and having them still be so passionate about what they do was really inspiring for me.
CAMERON BUSH
I am a Computer Engineering major. I am part of the SAE Baja team and am a member of the Computer Engineering Industry Advisory Committee (IAC).
I wanted to join the WMSE project because I wanted to learn how radio can bring communities together and how we, as students, can do our part to give back to our communities.
Throughout the project, I’ve enjoyed working with the different organizations to create something that, through the power of the radio, will help them succeed in their goals.
