August 30, 2024 • 25 mins
In this episode, we get to hear from two student journalists based in Fremont.
We have wanted to work with student journalists for some time and, over the summer, we were honored to have two students contact us for a collaboration.
Padma Balaji and Atharva Sonune worked in parallel for this story about the SATs. What they produced is a glimpse into the recent troubles that so many students are dealing with (because derpy adults can’t get their act together).
This episode is merely an introduction. The two of them have other stories in the works and we will feature those future stories inside of our larger episodes later on.
If YOU are a student and want to collaborate with The Fremont Podcast, please let us know. We would like to work with you, we will help you produce audio stories where you need help and we WILL make room in our podcast for your work.
*And we don't have to meet IRL because we know you are busy.
If you would like to contact The Fremont Podcast, please text us here.
Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor of The Fremont Podcast from the beginning. If you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Fremont.
Haller's Pharmacy is here to help. They have been in our community for decades.
Founder: Ricky B.
Intro and outro voice-overs made by Gary Williams.
Editor: Andrew Cavette.
Scheduling and pre-interviews by the amazing virtual assistant that you ought to hire, seriously, she's great: your.virtual.ace
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Are you with an organization?
Are you just on your own?
What brought you to paint theutility box today?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We're on our own, but we just like art and we wanted
to beautify Fremont.
So it just inspired us, andwhen we saw this contest, we
just immediately grabbed theopportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And, briefly, what is your design?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Our design, so our theme was sustainability and how
Fremont is making it a greenerplace.
We decided to incorporatethings like windmills and
eco-friendly solar panels andother kinds of biodegradable
things and show like nature, andwe also incorporated like the
(00:48):
carbon footprint being erasedhow long did?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
how long were you out here?
How long did it take to do whatyou've done so far?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
we've been here since like around a 7 40 february
this morning.
We were here yesterday.
We're gonna come back tomorrow.
I don't know how many hoursoverall.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is gonna take the whole
week to finish, but we're happyto see how it turns out.
I mean, yeah, like seeing allthese cars being run on gasoline
it does kind of hurt, butknowing that gasoline-driven
cars are going to be likereduced soon and replaced by
like hydrogen power or likeeco-friendly cars, it is
(01:24):
promising to our environment.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Anything you wanted to add, I didn't get a chance to
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Regarding the cars, we do have renewable energy in
transport, I think featured inthe art too.
We have a person on a bike toencourage more active,
eco-friendly transportation, andalso a BART train, which is
Fremont's approach to carpooling, so reducing gasoline-driven
(01:55):
cars Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, they were very kind with their time.
You are listening to episode124 of the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I tried throughout freshman year many, many times
to register, but missed almostevery single deadline.
And these spots fill up soquickly.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Coming to you straight from Fremont,
california.
This is the Fremont Podcast,dedicated to telling the stories
of the past and present of thepeople and places of the city of
Fremont, one conversation at atime.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Hello Fremont, this is Andrew, the editor.
I'll be your host for thisepisode.
This episode is two thingscoming together in the best way.
Is two things coming togetherin the best way?
Number one is that we here atthe podcast have interviewed
kids.
Kids, teenagers have beenguests on this show and they
(03:00):
have been some of the bestepisodes that we've done, quite
frankly.
Top-level BMX riders, eagleScouts letting us know about
local history, two separateguests where these young ladies
were driving their insane cars,sometimes through the deserts
for long periods of time.
Kids who show up with theirprofessional magician dads and
(03:24):
almost steal the episode.
And groups of teens who aretrying to put more art into the
world in an organized fashionwith the Athena Project.
Number two there exist in theschools of Fremont student
newspapers and studentjournalists who write those
(03:45):
newspapers, and we thought itwould be a great idea to work
with those student journalists.
They are going to think upstory ideas that we aren't going
to think up and they are goingto have access to an entire
category of storytelling that wejust don't have access to.
A few episodes back actuallymore than a few episodes back we
(04:10):
had one of our reporters, mark,go out and ask people about
niche communities, and one ofthe things we learned from that
reporting was that maybe thistown focuses a little too much
on just families who are raisingkids and there were some
downsides to that.
But the flip side of that isthat there are a lot of people
(04:34):
raising kids in this town andmaybe we should hear about what
the kids have to say.
I am genuinely a big fan ofCOVID involved reporting that
(05:05):
had been done by some studentsat one of the local high schools
.
It was an amazing, brave pieceof work that touched on taboo
topics and it really tried toaddress a problem that was
impacting, let's say, half thestudents.
It was well-written andwell-reported and I thought, oh,
(05:29):
we should recreate that in anaudio form and it never happened
.
But that's okay, because herewe are.
This episode is going to be allabout student journalists.
We put a call out to thestudent journalists of all the
high schools here in Fremont andtwo people replied.
(05:49):
They spent the summer workingon stories for us and this is
just an introduction.
They've got more than this andyou will hear more of their work
in later episodes, but for thisepisode they worked on the same
story in parallel, but for thisepisode.
They worked on the same storyin parallel and I'll introduce
them properly in a moment andwe'll get around to all of that.
(06:10):
But I wanted to first tell you astory about some of the
difficulties that we had here atthe podcast actually working
with teenagers, despite themreally wanting to work with us.
Yeah, I'd be interested intapping into some of those and
seeing if there's a.
I think it would be kind ofcool to hear their perspective
(06:31):
and just kind of like we couldemail.
I'll do it.
Yeah, we could email all thenewspapers from the high schools
and say if you want to do aspecial project, the students
don't need to have greatequipment, you can just do it
off your phone.
Yeah, and then we will makespace for your project on our
(06:53):
feet.
Yeah, that's great Within anepisode on its own.
Yeah, we had this idea to workwith student journalists at a
staff meeting and after thatstaff meeting I emailed all of
the high schools, as many as Icould find.
There are more than five highschools in Fremont, but not all
of them have newspapers.
So and we did this almost atthe end of the last school year.
(07:16):
So, understandably, the advisorsand the students were all very
busy kind of wrapping things up.
It certainly wasn't going tohappen before the end of the
year, but some of the advisorswere enthusiastic about it.
There is, unfortunately, onecatch One of the advisors for
the newspaper, a very niceperson, wrote back and explained
(07:40):
to us some of the roadblocksthat are on a district level for
any outside party, any thirdparty, to work with students
inside of the Fremont UnifiedSchool District.
I'll read some of the email ina second, but the short answer
is we can't work with theschools directly.
The amount of district-levelpaperwork and permission that we
(08:05):
would need to get is kind of anon-starter.
The district is being veryprotective of the students in
all the schools in the districtand, okay, that's fair, I'm not
complaining about that.
That's a good thing.
Uh, they don't want thirdparties just showing up on
(08:32):
campus and working directly withthe student staff during class
time.
Absolutely, we don't want to dothat.
Us to address a number ofliability concerns, including
student media releases, siteadministrator approval and
potentially district levelapproval.
Yeah, and all of those soundlike very good precautionary
(08:55):
rules.
If you're going to have peoplewho don't belong to the district
, you're going to have to putthem through the ringer in order
to make everything legit,totally understand.
And so I pitched back oh hey, wedon't need to do that, we don't
need to show up at all, but wecertainly would like to mention
the papers that they work for.
We wanted to give these schoolsand their top level journalism
(09:19):
students the credit they deserve, and I was told that even that
is a no-no and this isdistrict-wide all the high
schools.
According to our district'spublic information officer, as
long as our school and schoolnewspaper's name is used in
association with the student'swork published by an outside
(09:40):
entity, we would still need toundergo the level of school and
district approval required, ashad been mentioned before in the
previous email.
Some of the advisors havespread the words about the
opportunity to work with us, andI'm so happy they did so.
We here at the podcast areworking with these students
independently and we got theirparents' permission first before
(10:03):
we started chit-chatting overemail.
So while we certainly canmention these kids by name
they're in the show notes belowwe can't tell you what school
they go to and we can't mentionthe name of the newspapers that
they would normally be writingfor.
There was a subsequent email,by the way, that listed a bunch
of things that we had to makesure to do and we've checked off
(10:27):
all of those, and I wanted toclarify that all of this work
was done over the summer.
So it was not a conflict withtheir work for the school
newspaper, extracurricularfamily responsibility and for
what it's worth.
Nor does it plagiarize theirwork in the school newspaper.
(10:48):
And, yes, this may seem like merambling on about a minor
complaint, but I just wanted toexplain some of the things we
went through and some of thereasons why we can't give credit
where credit is due.
I wish we could.
So I just wanted to make itclear that we're not going to
mention the schools and we'renot going to mention the school
(11:09):
newspapers.
Okay, as you can imagine orremember, taking the SATs is
hard.
This year, apparently, it'seven harder, especially for a
particular group of kids.
I asked both of the studentjournalists that are working
with us over the summer totackle this story from different
(11:31):
angles from the people thatthey could find, and to also put
in their own experiences,because they are not only
reporting on it, but they aregoing through it.
First up, we are going to hearfrom Atarva Sunune.
He went out and asked one ofhis classmates what she went
through just to sign up for theSATs.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
I talked with Shreya, a student.
She's a junior.
While you're getting preparedfor college applications, have
you become familiar with the newtesting policies of Ivy League
schools?
Speaker 7 (12:05):
For the most part, yes.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
During the COVID years, Ivy Leagues like Harvard
and Princeton, as well asprivate colleges like Stanford,
did not require the SATs or ACTs.
Standardized test scores wereoptional.
Covid-era policies are now fouryears old, and an entire class
of students have grown from 7thgraders to juniors in those four
years.
However, prestigious collegesacross the country recently
(12:29):
announced that they're now goingto require standardized test
scores for their fall 2025admissions cycle, and that's a
sharp reversal to their earlierpolicies.
This announcement does notleave much time for juniors to
take the SAT.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
It's a little bit scary, considering that we're
going to be the first year backand they're suddenly just
deciding to require it for ouryear again.
The preparation process isgoing okay.
I'm a little bit lost on how tostudy exactly for the SAT, but
I'm just practicing.
I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
Has it been difficult finding test slots?
Speaker 7 (13:03):
Yeah, it has definitely.
I tried to get one in October.
I was able to get two spots inNovember and December easily,
and then I wanted to get one inOctober just so I could get it
done fast, but then the spotslike went away for the October
one super fast.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
And studying for an additional test while
desperately searching for a timeslot for that additional test
is not the only thing highschool students are dealing with
.
Mixed in with your APs, mixedin with all your classes that
you're taking.
How does it relate to thelarger in the larger context?
Speaker 7 (13:36):
In the larger context .
I mean I'm trying to figure outhow to manage my time evenly
and give enough time to each ofthose activities, since a lot of
them require a huge timecommitment.
So just trying to figure outhow to manage my schedule.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Only a handful of Ivy Leagues and private colleges
have announced this recentreversal in their policies.
The University of Californiasystem, for example, does not
accept standardized test scoresat all.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
I mean, it's definitely a relief that UCs
don't require it, so there is achance in case I don't do.
Well, I do have a chance ofstill ending up fine, but I
think I will still.
I'm ending up taking it, just Idon't know, in case something
great happens.
You know, you never know.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Do you think the SAT is important?
Speaker 7 (14:25):
I do think it's important.
Standardized testing does makeit a lot easier to compare
students on like a base level,because GPA really can depend on
how easy the teachers are atyour school.
It's a stressful process, but Ido think it can be useful and
it does serve a purpose,although I don't enjoy it.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
While researching and interviewing classmates about
the SAT, I began to notice that,apart from the juniors who are
planning to take the SAT for thefirst time this fall, there's a
lot of seniors who are planningto retake the SAT.
It made me question what is agood SAT score?
A 1050 is the nationwideaverage, while a 1350 or above
(15:09):
puts you in the top 10% of testtakers.
It sure doesn't feel like I'min the top 10% of test takers
though.
It sure doesn't feel like I'min the top 10% of test takers
though.
I took the SAT in November oflast year, got a 1550, college
board set us in the 99th percentof test takers, but living in
the Bay Area makes me feel likeI'm in the top 50%.
Almost everyone here has takenthe SAT more than once.
(15:35):
Most of my classmates took twoSATs back to back November,
december.
If they didn't get the scorethey wanted, they would just
keep taking it again, and I'mconfused.
Do I want to spend the time,effort and energy in studying
for a standardized bubble intest, or do I want to invest
(15:59):
that time and energy intopursuing a passion project, into
studying for my six classes inschool and preparing for college
applications?
I know someone who got a 1490,retook the SAT, got a 1510,
retook it again this is twicenow for a 1530, retook it once
(16:21):
more, got a 1530, and retook ita fourth time only to get a 1540
.
This man studied for countlesshours on end and looking at him
I realized that maybe themarginal improvements aren't
worth it for me, but for somepeople they just might be, and
(16:44):
that kind of represents theentire Bay Area culture as a
whole.
We keep pursuing something it'sthe college grind mindset we
need to get into the top schools, into the top universities, and
maybe that's just due to ourlocation.
We live in Silicon Valley.
Berkeley is 40 miles, 30, 40miles north.
(17:06):
Stanford is 30 miles away.
In Palo Alto, we're surroundedby such great universities that
it seems like if we don't get inthere, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Next up we have Padma Balaji, and while I am not
allowed to tell you that shegoes to, I can tell you that
when she asked to work with usshe sent her resume and it looks
better than mine.
She has worked all over the BayArea with radio and I hope to
hear more from her.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
I spoke with Tanvi Ramesh.
She's a junior here in Fremontand, like many students this
summer, she cannot take the SATswhere she lives.
Speaker 8 (17:49):
We need to fix something.
There's something wrong,Because I'm not able to get a
proper SAT spot within like atwo-mile radius of me.
Like why isn't my schoolholding SATs?
Why do I have to go all the wayto San Jose, which is like a
30-minute drive for me, to takemy SAT?
But I wasn't even able to getthat because it was the closest,
so now I have to go all the wayone hour away.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Even when Bunby successfully signed up for a
spot, she couldn't sign up for aspot.
Speaker 8 (18:12):
I was trying to get a spot in the place closest to me
.
I clicked on it.
The 10-minute timer was going.
I had the spot.
For some reason, my entire pagerefreshes and then somebody
else took my spot.
After that, that was the lastspot for the place, so I then
had to find a place an hour away.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
This can't be that big a deal.
So a few top colleges, some IvyLeagues and some private
universities are being daft,changing their policies too soon
and telling juniors too late.
So what?
Some amazing colleges stilldon't accept SATs.
Why not apply to them and avoidthis nonsense?
Speaker 8 (18:57):
The Bay Area is a very competitive place and SATs
regardless or not people aregoing to take them to them and
avoid this nonsense, have to flyall the way to like Southern
California to take their SATsand I think that's like pretty
crazy.
And some people have to takelike three to four hour drives.
I think that's just wild.
All for some like standardizedtest.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So I wanted to talk with Padma after her reporting
to see what her personalexperience was.
To me it seemed.
It seems like students have tobe like really on the ball, more
so than just being seriousabout it, more so than just sort
of like like I can understand,not slacking off, but it seems
(19:45):
like there's almost anaggressive nature to how on it
these students that you've beentalking to have to be.
I don't hear from thesestudents that they are like
being frivolous with their time,but a lot of these changes are
happening really quickly andthey're not staying.
The changes aren't stayingstill.
(20:06):
The changes aren't stayingstill.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
What was your experience and what did you know
about the SATs and how to goabout this when you started?
When I first decided I wantedto take the SATs, I had no idea
how to go about registering.
I had no siblings or familymembers who had ever taken the
SAT before, and my parents hadno idea what to do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So what did you do Like?
How did it end up working outfor you?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I tried throughout freshman year many, many times
to register, but missed almostevery single deadline, and the
spots fill up so quickly.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I assume you were successful.
Tell me about the day.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I ended up registering the day SAT spots
came up almost completely byaccident.
It was just another day ofschool.
I wandered into sixth periodand as I was coming in I heard
some kids talking aboutregistering for the SAT.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
That was lucky.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
It was almost a miracle.
Completely by luck, I had somany spots open to me just
because the registration hadbeen open just hours earlier.
But even by the time that Iwent in, all of the August SAT,
which is the first spots thatare open were already taken.
I had to register for September, but thankfully I was able to
(21:24):
find the closest spot to me,which ironically was almost 20
miles away in San Jose, eventhough I live in Fremont.
Still, that was a miracle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It seems like that's a very common theme through all
of the reporting and throughyour personal experience having
to travel.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
I know so many people who had to register in late
December and early spring, whoare having to drive more than 50
miles, 60 miles, who have totake entire road trips just to
take an SAT test.
And most people take it once ortwice.
I only registered once becauseI had no idea how the SAT worked
at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Right, that's.
Another thing that kept comingup is that this is not a test.
You have to take one time toget better and better scores.
Well, hopefully, hopefully,better and better scores.
These kids are having to takethis more than once, which means
they're having to travel morethan once, which means they're
having to book it more than once, and they're getting pushed and
(22:23):
pushed, and pushed.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
For many kids these kind of miracles don't happen
very easily.
It's so very difficult to taketime out of our already super
busy schedule to go to fly out,to drive out, just to take a
standardized test for a coupleof hours.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You said you took it once.
Have you been able to get itagain?
Have you been able to booksomething again?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
you been able to book something again.
Just recently.
I again very miraculously founda spot in San Francisco that
was open for the August SAT,which is just a couple of weeks
now, and I was able to register.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That is good.
Is it weird to say that, like,thankfully it was only in San
Francisco?
I mean, from what I've beenhearing from the reporting,
having it be as close as SanFrancisco is, you know, pretty
lucky.
But that also sounds verystrange that you would have to
(23:19):
go all the way to San Francisco.
Take your reporter hat off andwhat needs to happen, Like in
your opinion, what needs tohappen, what needs to change.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
College Board needs to do better providing us spots,
providing us accessibility andalso providing transparency.
We have no idea when the spotregistrations open, we have no
idea how many spots there are orhow registration works, and
because of this, we get screwedover by College Board almost
every single year, and this hasbeen going on for a very long
time now.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
A little peek behind the scenes.
I had to come back to the samespot.
I had recorded the story aboutthe ladies who were painting the
utility box to have the sameambient car noise.
So I'm back.
It's just a little radio magicthat you might not otherwise
(24:17):
notice.
If you are a student and ajournalist and a student
journalist and you'd like towork with us and you'd like to
learn about a little radio magic, please contact us.
We'd really like to work withyou.
Well, that is it.
Thank you for listening.
The creator and founder of thispodcast and the normal host of
(24:40):
this podcast is Ricky B.
My name is Andrew Kovett andI'm normally the editor and for
the rest of it, I'm going to letGary do his normal excellent
work.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I'm Gary Williams.
Scheduling and pre-interviewsby Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit is that you listen so you
don't miss an episode.
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Are you with an organization?
Are you just on your own?
What brought you to paint theutility box today?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We're on our own, but we just like art and we wanted
to beautify Fremont.
So it just inspired us, andwhen we saw this contest, we
just immediately grabbed theopportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And, briefly, what is your design?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Our design, so our theme was sustainability and how
Fremont is making it a greenerplace.
We decided to incorporatethings like windmills and
eco-friendly solar panels andother kinds of biodegradable
things and show like nature, andwe also incorporated like the
(00:48):
carbon footprint being erasedhow long did?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
how long were you out here?
How long did it take to do whatyou've done so far?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
we've been here since like around a 7 40 february
this morning.
We were here yesterday.
We're gonna come back tomorrow.
I don't know how many hoursoverall.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is gonna take the whole
week to finish, but we're happyto see how it turns out.
I mean, yeah, like seeing allthese cars being run on gasoline
it does kind of hurt, butknowing that gasoline-driven
cars are going to be likereduced soon and replaced by
like hydrogen power or likeeco-friendly cars, it is
(01:24):
promising to our environment.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Anything you wanted to add, I didn't get a chance to
Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Regarding the cars, we do have renewable energy in
transport, I think featured inthe art too.
We have a person on a bike toencourage more active,
eco-friendly transportation, andalso a BART train, which is
Fremont's approach to carpooling, so reducing gasoline-driven
(01:55):
cars Awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, they were very kind with their time.
You are listening to episode124 of the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I tried throughout freshman year many, many times
to register, but missed almostevery single deadline.
And these spots fill up soquickly.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Coming to you straight from Fremont,
california.
This is the Fremont Podcast,dedicated to telling the stories
of the past and present of thepeople and places of the city of
Fremont, one conversation at atime.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Hello Fremont, this is Andrew, the editor.
I'll be your host for thisepisode.
This episode is two thingscoming together in the best way.
Is two things coming togetherin the best way?
Number one is that we here atthe podcast have interviewed
kids.
Kids, teenagers have beenguests on this show and they
(03:00):
have been some of the bestepisodes that we've done, quite
frankly.
Top-level BMX riders, eagleScouts letting us know about
local history, two separateguests where these young ladies
were driving their insane cars,sometimes through the deserts
for long periods of time.
Kids who show up with theirprofessional magician dads and
(03:24):
almost steal the episode.
And groups of teens who aretrying to put more art into the
world in an organized fashionwith the Athena Project.
Number two there exist in theschools of Fremont student
newspapers and studentjournalists who write those
(03:45):
newspapers, and we thought itwould be a great idea to work
with those student journalists.
They are going to think upstory ideas that we aren't going
to think up and they are goingto have access to an entire
category of storytelling that wejust don't have access to.
A few episodes back actuallymore than a few episodes back we
(04:10):
had one of our reporters, mark,go out and ask people about
niche communities, and one ofthe things we learned from that
reporting was that maybe thistown focuses a little too much
on just families who are raisingkids and there were some
downsides to that.
But the flip side of that isthat there are a lot of people
(04:34):
raising kids in this town andmaybe we should hear about what
the kids have to say.
I am genuinely a big fan ofCOVID involved reporting that
(05:05):
had been done by some studentsat one of the local high schools
.
It was an amazing, brave pieceof work that touched on taboo
topics and it really tried toaddress a problem that was
impacting, let's say, half thestudents.
It was well-written andwell-reported and I thought, oh,
(05:29):
we should recreate that in anaudio form and it never happened
.
But that's okay, because herewe are.
This episode is going to be allabout student journalists.
We put a call out to thestudent journalists of all the
high schools here in Fremont andtwo people replied.
(05:49):
They spent the summer workingon stories for us and this is
just an introduction.
They've got more than this andyou will hear more of their work
in later episodes, but for thisepisode they worked on the same
story in parallel, but for thisepisode.
They worked on the same storyin parallel and I'll introduce
them properly in a moment andwe'll get around to all of that.
(06:10):
But I wanted to first tell you astory about some of the
difficulties that we had here atthe podcast actually working
with teenagers, despite themreally wanting to work with us.
Yeah, I'd be interested intapping into some of those and
seeing if there's a.
I think it would be kind ofcool to hear their perspective
(06:31):
and just kind of like we couldemail.
I'll do it.
Yeah, we could email all thenewspapers from the high schools
and say if you want to do aspecial project, the students
don't need to have greatequipment, you can just do it
off your phone.
Yeah, and then we will makespace for your project on our
(06:53):
feet.
Yeah, that's great Within anepisode on its own.
Yeah, we had this idea to workwith student journalists at a
staff meeting and after thatstaff meeting I emailed all of
the high schools, as many as Icould find.
There are more than five highschools in Fremont, but not all
of them have newspapers.
So and we did this almost atthe end of the last school year.
(07:16):
So, understandably, the advisorsand the students were all very
busy kind of wrapping things up.
It certainly wasn't going tohappen before the end of the
year, but some of the advisorswere enthusiastic about it.
There is, unfortunately, onecatch One of the advisors for
the newspaper, a very niceperson, wrote back and explained
(07:40):
to us some of the roadblocksthat are on a district level for
any outside party, any thirdparty, to work with students
inside of the Fremont UnifiedSchool District.
I'll read some of the email ina second, but the short answer
is we can't work with theschools directly.
The amount of district-levelpaperwork and permission that we
(08:05):
would need to get is kind of anon-starter.
The district is being veryprotective of the students in
all the schools in the districtand, okay, that's fair, I'm not
complaining about that.
That's a good thing.
Uh, they don't want thirdparties just showing up on
(08:32):
campus and working directly withthe student staff during class
time.
Absolutely, we don't want to dothat.
Us to address a number ofliability concerns, including
student media releases, siteadministrator approval and
potentially district levelapproval.
Yeah, and all of those soundlike very good precautionary
(08:55):
rules.
If you're going to have peoplewho don't belong to the district
, you're going to have to putthem through the ringer in order
to make everything legit,totally understand.
And so I pitched back oh hey, wedon't need to do that, we don't
need to show up at all, but wecertainly would like to mention
the papers that they work for.
We wanted to give these schoolsand their top level journalism
(09:19):
students the credit they deserve, and I was told that even that
is a no-no and this isdistrict-wide all the high
schools.
According to our district'spublic information officer, as
long as our school and schoolnewspaper's name is used in
association with the student'swork published by an outside
(09:40):
entity, we would still need toundergo the level of school and
district approval required, ashad been mentioned before in the
previous email.
Some of the advisors havespread the words about the
opportunity to work with us, andI'm so happy they did so.
We here at the podcast areworking with these students
independently and we got theirparents' permission first before
(10:03):
we started chit-chatting overemail.
So while we certainly canmention these kids by name
they're in the show notes belowwe can't tell you what school
they go to and we can't mentionthe name of the newspapers that
they would normally be writingfor.
There was a subsequent email,by the way, that listed a bunch
of things that we had to makesure to do and we've checked off
(10:27):
all of those, and I wanted toclarify that all of this work
was done over the summer.
So it was not a conflict withtheir work for the school
newspaper, extracurricularfamily responsibility and for
what it's worth.
Nor does it plagiarize theirwork in the school newspaper.
(10:48):
And, yes, this may seem like merambling on about a minor
complaint, but I just wanted toexplain some of the things we
went through and some of thereasons why we can't give credit
where credit is due.
I wish we could.
So I just wanted to make itclear that we're not going to
mention the schools and we'renot going to mention the school
(11:09):
newspapers.
Okay, as you can imagine orremember, taking the SATs is
hard.
This year, apparently, it'seven harder, especially for a
particular group of kids.
I asked both of the studentjournalists that are working
with us over the summer totackle this story from different
(11:31):
angles from the people thatthey could find, and to also put
in their own experiences,because they are not only
reporting on it, but they aregoing through it.
First up, we are going to hearfrom Atarva Sunune.
He went out and asked one ofhis classmates what she went
through just to sign up for theSATs.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
I talked with Shreya, a student.
She's a junior.
While you're getting preparedfor college applications, have
you become familiar with the newtesting policies of Ivy League
schools?
Speaker 7 (12:05):
For the most part, yes.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
During the COVID years, Ivy Leagues like Harvard
and Princeton, as well asprivate colleges like Stanford,
did not require the SATs or ACTs.
Standardized test scores wereoptional.
Covid-era policies are now fouryears old, and an entire class
of students have grown from 7thgraders to juniors in those four
years.
However, prestigious collegesacross the country recently
(12:29):
announced that they're now goingto require standardized test
scores for their fall 2025admissions cycle, and that's a
sharp reversal to their earlierpolicies.
This announcement does notleave much time for juniors to
take the SAT.
Speaker 7 (12:42):
It's a little bit scary, considering that we're
going to be the first year backand they're suddenly just
deciding to require it for ouryear again.
The preparation process isgoing okay.
I'm a little bit lost on how tostudy exactly for the SAT, but
I'm just practicing.
I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
Has it been difficult finding test slots?
Speaker 7 (13:03):
Yeah, it has definitely.
I tried to get one in October.
I was able to get two spots inNovember and December easily,
and then I wanted to get one inOctober just so I could get it
done fast, but then the spotslike went away for the October
one super fast.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
And studying for an additional test while
desperately searching for a timeslot for that additional test
is not the only thing highschool students are dealing with
.
Mixed in with your APs, mixedin with all your classes that
you're taking.
How does it relate to thelarger in the larger context?
Speaker 7 (13:36):
In the larger context .
I mean I'm trying to figure outhow to manage my time evenly
and give enough time to each ofthose activities, since a lot of
them require a huge timecommitment.
So just trying to figure outhow to manage my schedule.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
Only a handful of Ivy Leagues and private colleges
have announced this recentreversal in their policies.
The University of Californiasystem, for example, does not
accept standardized test scoresat all.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
I mean, it's definitely a relief that UCs
don't require it, so there is achance in case I don't do.
Well, I do have a chance ofstill ending up fine, but I
think I will still.
I'm ending up taking it, just Idon't know, in case something
great happens.
You know, you never know.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Do you think the SAT is important?
Speaker 7 (14:25):
I do think it's important.
Standardized testing does makeit a lot easier to compare
students on like a base level,because GPA really can depend on
how easy the teachers are atyour school.
It's a stressful process, but Ido think it can be useful and
it does serve a purpose,although I don't enjoy it.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
While researching and interviewing classmates about
the SAT, I began to notice that,apart from the juniors who are
planning to take the SAT for thefirst time this fall, there's a
lot of seniors who are planningto retake the SAT.
It made me question what is agood SAT score?
A 1050 is the nationwideaverage, while a 1350 or above
(15:09):
puts you in the top 10% of testtakers.
It sure doesn't feel like I'min the top 10% of test takers
though.
It sure doesn't feel like I'min the top 10% of test takers
though.
I took the SAT in November oflast year, got a 1550, college
board set us in the 99th percentof test takers, but living in
the Bay Area makes me feel likeI'm in the top 50%.
Almost everyone here has takenthe SAT more than once.
(15:35):
Most of my classmates took twoSATs back to back November,
december.
If they didn't get the scorethey wanted, they would just
keep taking it again, and I'mconfused.
Do I want to spend the time,effort and energy in studying
for a standardized bubble intest, or do I want to invest
(15:59):
that time and energy intopursuing a passion project, into
studying for my six classes inschool and preparing for college
applications?
I know someone who got a 1490,retook the SAT, got a 1510,
retook it again this is twicenow for a 1530, retook it once
(16:21):
more, got a 1530, and retook ita fourth time only to get a 1540
.
This man studied for countlesshours on end and looking at him
I realized that maybe themarginal improvements aren't
worth it for me, but for somepeople they just might be, and
(16:44):
that kind of represents theentire Bay Area culture as a
whole.
We keep pursuing something it'sthe college grind mindset we
need to get into the top schools, into the top universities, and
maybe that's just due to ourlocation.
We live in Silicon Valley.
Berkeley is 40 miles, 30, 40miles north.
(17:06):
Stanford is 30 miles away.
In Palo Alto, we're surroundedby such great universities that
it seems like if we don't get inthere, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Next up we have Padma Balaji, and while I am not
allowed to tell you that shegoes to, I can tell you that
when she asked to work with usshe sent her resume and it looks
better than mine.
She has worked all over the BayArea with radio and I hope to
hear more from her.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
I spoke with Tanvi Ramesh.
She's a junior here in Fremontand, like many students this
summer, she cannot take the SATswhere she lives.
Speaker 8 (17:49):
We need to fix something.
There's something wrong,Because I'm not able to get a
proper SAT spot within like atwo-mile radius of me.
Like why isn't my schoolholding SATs?
Why do I have to go all the wayto San Jose, which is like a
30-minute drive for me, to takemy SAT?
But I wasn't even able to getthat because it was the closest,
so now I have to go all the wayone hour away.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Even when Bunby successfully signed up for a
spot, she couldn't sign up for aspot.
Speaker 8 (18:12):
I was trying to get a spot in the place closest to me
.
I clicked on it.
The 10-minute timer was going.
I had the spot.
For some reason, my entire pagerefreshes and then somebody
else took my spot.
After that, that was the lastspot for the place, so I then
had to find a place an hour away.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
This can't be that big a deal.
So a few top colleges, some IvyLeagues and some private
universities are being daft,changing their policies too soon
and telling juniors too late.
So what?
Some amazing colleges stilldon't accept SATs.
Why not apply to them and avoidthis nonsense?
Speaker 8 (18:57):
The Bay Area is a very competitive place and SATs
regardless or not people aregoing to take them to them and
avoid this nonsense, have to flyall the way to like Southern
California to take their SATsand I think that's like pretty
crazy.
And some people have to takelike three to four hour drives.
I think that's just wild.
All for some like standardizedtest.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So I wanted to talk with Padma after her reporting
to see what her personalexperience was.
To me it seemed.
It seems like students have tobe like really on the ball, more
so than just being seriousabout it, more so than just sort
of like like I can understand,not slacking off, but it seems
(19:45):
like there's almost anaggressive nature to how on it
these students that you've beentalking to have to be.
I don't hear from thesestudents that they are like
being frivolous with their time,but a lot of these changes are
happening really quickly andthey're not staying.
The changes aren't stayingstill.
(20:06):
The changes aren't stayingstill.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
What was your experience and what did you know
about the SATs and how to goabout this when you started?
When I first decided I wantedto take the SATs, I had no idea
how to go about registering.
I had no siblings or familymembers who had ever taken the
SAT before, and my parents hadno idea what to do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So what did you do Like?
How did it end up working outfor you?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I tried throughout freshman year many, many times
to register, but missed almostevery single deadline, and the
spots fill up so quickly.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I assume you were successful.
Tell me about the day.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I ended up registering the day SAT spots
came up almost completely byaccident.
It was just another day ofschool.
I wandered into sixth periodand as I was coming in I heard
some kids talking aboutregistering for the SAT.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
That was lucky.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
It was almost a miracle.
Completely by luck, I had somany spots open to me just
because the registration hadbeen open just hours earlier.
But even by the time that Iwent in, all of the August SAT,
which is the first spots thatare open were already taken.
I had to register for September, but thankfully I was able to
(21:24):
find the closest spot to me,which ironically was almost 20
miles away in San Jose, eventhough I live in Fremont.
Still, that was a miracle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
It seems like that's a very common theme through all
of the reporting and throughyour personal experience having
to travel.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
I know so many people who had to register in late
December and early spring, whoare having to drive more than 50
miles, 60 miles, who have totake entire road trips just to
take an SAT test.
And most people take it once ortwice.
I only registered once becauseI had no idea how the SAT worked
at the time.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Right, that's.
Another thing that kept comingup is that this is not a test.
You have to take one time toget better and better scores.
Well, hopefully, hopefully,better and better scores.
These kids are having to takethis more than once, which means
they're having to travel morethan once, which means they're
having to book it more than once, and they're getting pushed and
(22:23):
pushed, and pushed.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
For many kids these kind of miracles don't happen
very easily.
It's so very difficult to taketime out of our already super
busy schedule to go to fly out,to drive out, just to take a
standardized test for a coupleof hours.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You said you took it once.
Have you been able to get itagain?
Have you been able to booksomething again?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
you been able to book something again.
Just recently.
I again very miraculously founda spot in San Francisco that
was open for the August SAT,which is just a couple of weeks
now, and I was able to register.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That is good.
Is it weird to say that, like,thankfully it was only in San
Francisco?
I mean, from what I've beenhearing from the reporting,
having it be as close as SanFrancisco is, you know, pretty
lucky.
But that also sounds verystrange that you would have to
(23:19):
go all the way to San Francisco.
Take your reporter hat off andwhat needs to happen, Like in
your opinion, what needs tohappen, what needs to change.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
College Board needs to do better providing us spots,
providing us accessibility andalso providing transparency.
We have no idea when the spotregistrations open, we have no
idea how many spots there are orhow registration works, and
because of this, we get screwedover by College Board almost
every single year, and this hasbeen going on for a very long
time now.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
A little peek behind the scenes.
I had to come back to the samespot.
I had recorded the story aboutthe ladies who were painting the
utility box to have the sameambient car noise.
So I'm back.
It's just a little radio magicthat you might not otherwise
(24:17):
notice.
If you are a student and ajournalist and a student
journalist and you'd like towork with us and you'd like to
learn about a little radio magic, please contact us.
We'd really like to work withyou.
Well, that is it.
Thank you for listening.
The creator and founder of thispodcast and the normal host of
(24:40):
this podcast is Ricky B.
My name is Andrew Kovett andI'm normally the editor and for
the rest of it, I'm going to letGary do his normal excellent
work.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I'm Gary Williams.
Scheduling and pre-interviewsby Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit is that you listen so you
don't miss an episode.
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Good Game with Sarah Spain
Good Game is your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports. Every day, host Sarah Spain gives you the stories, stakes, stars and stats to keep up with your favorite women’s teams, leagues and athletes. Through thoughtful insight, witty banter, and an all around good time, Sarah and friends break down the latest news, talk about the games you can’t miss, and debate the issues of the day. Don’t miss interviews with the people of the moment, whether they be athletes, coaches, reporters, or celebrity fans.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.