OK, you pressed submit

But what happens to your entry once you send it off?

View this email online What happens to your entry now? With the deadline to enter this year’s College Podcast Challenge behind us, and the judging process already underway, we realized that you might not know all that goes into the CPC behind the scenes. Here’s a look behind the curtain! All of the entries start off by getting a listen from at least two members of our team at the NPR education desk. We write down our thoughts and share them, highlighting the topics or techniques that really made us sit up in our seats. From there, we compare our list of favorites to the notes we took. Sometimes we’ll take a listen together. Other times, we’ll share our thoughts about what we thought the strengths of a particular entry are. As the rules state, we take into consideration the storytelling, the writing, the creativity and the production. We also make sure to note the submissions that piqued our interest, even if they didn’t make it to the finalist round. These entries can become honorable mentions. Even if they might not have ALL of the components to them, we still want to shout out the folks who have the spark! Read The Rules Here Newsletter continues after sponsor message Finally, the selected finalists reach our judging panel. This year, the judges come from a variety of backgrounds in public radio and journalism with expertise in tons of different fields – long-form podcast production, member station news, health correspondence, and even TikTok mastery. Without further ado, here they are: Rhitu Chatterjee Rhitu Chatterjee is a health correspondent with NPR, with a focus on mental health. In addition to writing about the latest developments in psychology and psychiatry, she reports on the prevalence of different mental illnesses and new developments in treatments. Jack Corbett Jack Corbett studied Film Theory and Experimental Cinema at Ohio State University. He now makes weird TikToks for Planet Money. Rund Abdelfatah Rund Abdelfatah is the co-host and producer of Throughline, a podcast that explores the history of current events. In that role, she's responsible for all aspects of the podcast's production, including development of episode concepts, interviewing guests, and sound design. Robby Korth Robby Korth covers education for StateImpact Oklahoma. He grew up in Ardmore, Okla., and Fayetteville, Ark., and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Before working at StateImpact, he covered higher education for The Roanoke Times newspaper in Virginia. Leah Donnella Leah Donnella is the supervising editor of NPR's Code Switch team, where she helps produce and edit the Code Switch podcast, blog, and newsletter. She created the "Ask Code Switch" series, where members of the team respond to listener questions about how race, identity, and culture come up in everyday life. After the judges make the final decision, we get to send out the news to the folks whose stories truly blew us away. And then, it’s our turn to get to work. We take off to visit the winner, not only to congratulate them, but also to figure out exactly what made their story come alive. And then they get their own story at NPR! Here are those examples from last year.  Family Lore Fact-Check: Finding The Teen Muhammad Ali 'Boxed Along The Way' Attention Donor 3046: Your Daughter Made A Podcast To Find You Sit tight – that might just be you. See you next week! See you next week. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: studentpodcastchallenge@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Education, Health, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Student Podcast Challenge emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy