Earlier this year, WVXU in Cincinnati hosted Next Gen Radio. The organization trains the next generation of journalists, teaching them how to report and produce a non-narrated audio piece. This week, we're sharing a few of their stories.
Over a decade ago, Neal Hoffman's son spotted an Elf on a Shelf. The magical toy pops up around Christmastime to tell Santa whether children have been naughty or nice.
Hoffman's son wanted one. But there was just one problem: the Jewish family didn't celebrate Christmas.
"I kind of made this joke and said, 'No, man, you can have mensch on a bench'," Hoffman recalled.
Monika Bowman is a communications specialist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and a lifelong birder. She'salso an artist, and now she is working on a unique art project that will bring her two passions together.
On a farm in rural Clark County in southwest Ohio, fallow fields stretch as far as the eye can see. In the middle of them, there's a 35-foot tower.
"You're looking at one of [Ohio's] first mesonet stations," said Aaron Wilson, the state climatologist of Ohio and an ag weather and climate field specialist with Ohio State University Extension.
Alex Haley had been sober for five years when he tried to return to work in rural northwest Ohio. But he was first introduced to drugs when he was just 10 years old, and more than a decade of substance use has taken a toll on his health.
Dressed in full feathered headdresses and sequined regalia, a group of Mexican folk dancers gathered last week inside a church gymnasium in Willard, a small town in northern Ohio.
To the beat of pounding drums, they stomped and kicked out their feet, the beads on their outfits jingling with every move.
The process of fracking a well brings up gas or oil from deep underground. But it also brings dirt and rocks that could be contaminated with radioactivity and other chemicals.
As a totally blind person, Dawn Christensen has spent a lifetime navigating spaces that aren't easily accessible for the visually impaired.
For example, a nearby community college once invited her to survey their new braille signage shortly after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law.
In the spring of 2010, then-Ohio University student Maddie McGarvey noticed more and more grandparents were raising their grandchildren in southeast Ohio – a symptom of the opioid epidemic.
As a sophomore photojournalism student, she wanted to document one family's experience. A social worker connected her to the Castos.
Across Ohio, there's a shortage of qualified court interpreters: people who can translate complex legal jargon for non-English speakers in the state.
