Every year The Heinz Endowments organizes an internship program designed to help students entering college gain an understanding of philanthropy, foundations, non-profits and the Greater Pittsburgh Region. As part of The Heinz Endowments Summer Youth Philanthropy Program, each team of interns is allocated $25,000, which they will grant out to non-profits they feel most fit with the Request for Proposals (RFP) they create and address a need they see in the community. This year the internship has an environmental/ecological focus and includes twenty-four recent graduates divided into seven teams dispersed throughout different Pittsburgh foundations and non-profits. The Pittsburgh Foundation is hosting a team. Periodically they will publish their experiences in this space and keep you up to date on their grant making activities.

A Week at the Saturday Light Brigade…

While waiting for proposals to be submitted, we spent a week with the staff of the Saturday Light Brigade learning both the technical side as well as the creative side of producing and recording a four-minute radio segment. The Saturday Light Brigade (SLB) is a non-profit public radio program, which has been broadcast every Saturday morning to radios throughout Western Pennsylvania since 1978. Besides the Saturday show, SLB has been active in a wide variety of projects to engage the community. For example, the SLB conducts radio workshops for kids and adults, visits events throughout the Pittsburgh area, and hosts performances from regional musicians. In 2004, the SLB radio show moved into a new state-of-the-art studio in the basement of the Children’s Museum, on the North Side. Although the SLB is located within the Children’s Museum, its program is for listeners of all ages.

Working with the actual equipment and software used for the Saturday morning program and under the direction of founder, Larry Berger, we aimed to create a radio program that addressed an environmental topic specific to the city of Pittsburgh. We came in with varying levels of experience in working with audio, but Larry and the staff were quick to teach everyone the basics and move on from there. The final piece was titled Pittsburgh Perspectives and focused on the differing perspectives on environmental issues in Pittsburgh.

We interviewed Dr. Nancy Gift, an environmental science professor from Chatham and the director of the Rachel Carson Institute, on her outlooks on current environmental issues in the city of Pittsburgh. Wanting to compare and contrast the views of Dr. Gift with those of Pittsburgh youth, we interviewed a group of Student Conservation Association summer interns working at the Allegheny Commons on the North Side. To our surprise, the issues important to the SCA workers aligned with the issues important to Dr. Gift. The interviews were the starting point, and narration was written and recorded to link the interview segments together to create an engaging and informative piece. During the five days at SLB, we learned an immense amount about working with audio, planning and producing a radio show, performing an interview, connecting with an intended audience, and spreading a message through spoken word. The segment will air in August during normal SLB programming.

As the July 31 deadline for proposals approaches, we have scheduled numerous site visits as well as a week at Pittsburgh Filmmakers to create a short film.