WHYY Youth Media

WHYY Media Labs students produced a video to celebrate Media Labs' tenth anniversary and document the program’s accomplishments from the last decade.

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WHYY Media Labs students produced a video to celebrate Media Labs' tenth anniversary and document the program’s accomplishments from the last decade.

WHYY Youth Media provides students and educators across the region with hands-on training in media production, digital storytelling, and journalism. WHYY Youth Media offers a suite of direct-service programs for students—from introductory production classes at the station to internships for students interested in media career pathways. WHYY’s largest youth media program is WHYY Media Labs, a media instruction partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and other schools located in the Philadelphia region and Camden.

Whether it is in schools, at our station, or through an internship, WHYY Youth Media students learn video and audio production, critical thinking, STEM education skills, problem solving, research, develop a strong sense of self-efficacy and are better prepared for a wide variety of workplaces. Students also learn valuable life skills like how to work in teams, how to plan projects, and how to solve difficult problems.

Since 2014, WHYY has engaged over 25,000 students in hands-on media arts training through Media Labs.

 

WHYY Youth Media Offerings

Media Labs In Schools

WHYY’s Media Labs program is a media instruction partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and other schools located in the Philadelphia region, South Jersey and Delaware. Over the course of eight years, WHYY has engaged over 20,000 students in over 65 schools throughout Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey in hands-on media arts training through the program.

Youth Media at WHYY Studios

WHYY Media Labs offers youth media camps and free after-school classes at our station year round. Students in grades 6–12 dive into hands-on filmmaking, journalism, and media production. They learn to create original stories, develop technical skills, and explore their world through media with expert guidance and professional equipment at WHYY’s Public Media Commons.

Pathways to Media Careers

WHYY’s Pathways to Media Careers program connects advancing Media Labs students to jobs in the industry. WHYY’s Pathways to Media Careers is a paid, seven-week summer internship for youth ages 15–20. Interns gain professional experience in journalism, video, and audio production, build competitive portfolios, receive media gear, and earn a stipend, while preparing for future careers in media and storytelling.

WHYY Youth Media Resources

Resources for Stations

WHYY’s Youth Media Toolkit empowers public media stations to launch or grow youth storytelling programs. Written by the WHYY Education team and based on a decade of youth media program experience, the Toolkit offers proven strategies, curriculum guides, and lessons learned. This free, adaptable resource will help your station amplify youth voices and build meaningful youth media programming for your community.

Field Trips

Take your group on an immersive, educational, and hands-on tour of WHYY’s TV and radio studios and Public Media Commons. See what it’s like to work at a public media station, visit with our news and production teams, watch a live recording or broadcast. Students get hands-on experience with professional video equipment and practice conducting on-the-street interviews.

Resources for Teachers

Dive into WHYY Education’s video tutorial collection guiding teachers and students through storytelling and video production. Learn to craft news stories and documentaries with tips on topic selection, interviews, B-roll filming, and more. Engaging handouts and fun activities turn classrooms into filmmaking hubs, building skills and fostering creativity in young filmmakers.

WHYY Youth Media Student Work

Youth Media Awards

WHYY celebrates the best youth filmmakers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware with two great opportunities: Young Creators Studio, a TV show featuring the works of young producers, and the WHYY Youth Media Awards, a film festival and awards show.

Media Labs Student Films

Watch curated collections of WHYY youth media videos that kids have created through our hands-on media arts training programs: WHYY Media Labs at their schools, WHYY Pathways to Career internships, and various production classes and camps at our station. These student videos will entertain and inform you—but more importantly, they will present local issues and universal topics through the eyes of WHYY’s curious and creative youth media producers.

Media Labs Testimonials

Kids have a lot to say about their experiences as media students and interns at WHYY. These heartfelt testimonials feature students sharing how WHYY Youth Media shaped their learning, identity, and aspirations through challenges they overcame and milestones they achieved.