“I really didn’t think our project would grow to this size,” Lizzie Elsenpeter ’27 said in response to her team’s first-place win at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)’s inaugural College Emerging Voices showcase. Taking place on Feb. 12, the showcase was the culmination of a statewide competition where teams from Minnesota colleges and universities created proposals for projects that aim to engage young people in local media.
According to an MPR press release, over 80 students from different schools participated in workshops to identify ideas for public media engagement and create project prototypes. Two teams from St. Olaf were selected as finalists to present at the showcase. The winning team consisted of Elsenpeter, Will Christensen ’26, Sevag Koussa Ogli ’28, and Paavo Rundman ’26, who took home the grand prize of $4000 with their project “Local Listening Hour.”
The “Local Listening Hour” would involve MPR focusing on a news story that is directly affecting people in a particular community. Then, MPR would select an expert on that issue to host a listening hour in a community space where people can show up, learn about what is happening, then take action on it. Elsenpeter and Christensen explained that the “Local Listening Hour” grew from the sentiment that interacting with the news can feel overwhelming, especially with the way it’s presented on social media.
“The idea is that [the] specific interaction with the community will then result in people from that community feeling like they can actually help their neighbors,” Christensen said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
The team is now waiting on next steps from MPR. As of now, they know it will involve continued meetings with the company to flesh-out their project and eventually implement it.
“The themes that we were getting at were not individual,” Christensen said. “Most of the presenters focused on how the news is disconnected and isolating, [and] we need ways to combat that… it would be nice to see the project fulfilled.”
Following the showcase, Elsenpeter encourages other Oles to take a chance on similar experiences.
“I thought it was just going to be a fun workshop, and it has turned into this,” Elsenpeter said. “Take any opportunity you have at Olaf, because a lot of them can lead to great outcomes.”
