Comments by Thao To

Comment for "Students vs. SATs"

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Review of Students vs. SATs

SATS? Are they that scary? The answer is yes.

Tirhas explores the subject of SATS in her piece. She starts of by explain how prospective students, like herself, are in a pickle when they have bad SAT scores. She does a very thorough job of explaining the world of SATS and takes the opinions of teachers and students into account.

The background music was done quite well in this piece. Everytime she changes subject the background changes to fit the subject. The SAT question part was especially well done, the jeopardy background music made the question more difficult than it already was.

The ending was very satisfying as well. It left me off in a good mood. As a high school student trying to take the SAT, I could really relate to this piece and I would recommend this piece to any other student stressing about the SATs.

Comment for "Coming Out for Politics"

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Review of Coming Out for Politics

The piece opens up with the political scene that many Americans witness today. It sets us up nicely for the piece. While Bryce sees other kids being youth advocates by being politically active , he wonders what he's doing. An insecurity many teens, like myself have. We find out he does become a youth advocate by coming out in a catholic high school in a conservative area, which is a very brave thing.

Out of all the political pieces, this one has to be my favorite. We see teens everywhere advocating about voting and changing the world, but Bryce Jacobson cannot vote, so he advocates being himself. We need to see more kids like him who are themselves no matter where.

The piece overall was a good listen and a breath of fresh-air from all the political pieces being mass produced at the moment. His point of view is also very humorous, which makes the listener like him more and want to listen more. The volumes are also perfect for listening, it does not get dull at all. I would suggest this to any teen who is lost and needs to find a way to find themselves.

Comment for "Addiction"

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Review of Addiction

What drew me in completely was Gabriel's poem. This is a very unique piece, because it completely draws you into it in the beginning, but it dwindles down a bit at the end. I expected the piece to be just his poem, so it surprised me that there were questions at the end. It mellowed out the mood that Gabriel's poem.

This is not exactly an addiction help piece, but more of a personal and opinionated piece. Instead of the expected interviews with rehab center workers and drug addicts, you get the opinions of youth. It's nice to get to learn about how these people percieved addiction, but the opinions were light hearted compared to Gabriel's shapr and raw. Basically there were two moods in the piece, and that did not really sit well with me.

The sound levels could have gone down a little bit, high sound levels for the poem is fine, but for the interview it should have been a little lower.

Comment for "From a Thimble to a Teacup (Politics & Me)"

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Review of From a Thimble to a Teacup (Politics & Me)

Libby, like me and most other teenagers, know next to nothing about politics. It's easy to relate to her since this piece is personal and we used to have the same opinions in politics. She starts out as really knowing nothing but as the piece progresses we learn that she gets a job as a first time political reporter at the New Hampshire Primaries.

The piece is just her voice, which gets boring during the ending because that's all you hear. It would be nice if she had some audio of the conference, or some background music. The piece is short, about a two minutes, but even that amount gets boring without any spice. Even the short tidbit at the end about Ryan Seacrest did not make it more interesting.

Comment for "Sometimes I'm just too gosh darn HAPPY!"

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Review of Sometimes I'm just too gosh darn HAPPY!

Being happy can be a serious downer. So says Ashley Schleeper, a happy ex-cheerleader art student. She starts off by saying that as a happy person, people assume that there's something wrong with them. Unfortunately, I assume the same when I see happy people, but Ashley clears those misconceptions about her. She is not on anything nor is there anything wrong with her head, she is just a happy person, which is why it's such a downer.

In today's society, depression and angst is common, which is why it is so hard for her to fit in. Instead of curing negativity , she wants to cure her positivity, which I find hilarious. The whole piece is hilarious, yet intelligent. Ashley uses quotes from Mark Twain and current day prescriptions to promote the fact that her happiness is something unusual.

With the narrator's upbeat personality and the piece's light hearted tone, it's hard not to like this piece or the narrator.

Comment for "Mi Abuela's Lottery Dreams"

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Review of Mi Abuela's Lottery Dreams

Alca creates an endearing piece about her Abuela and her time with her. She starts with a description of her Abuela and includes sound clips of her voice, which makes me get a better connection between grandaughter and grandmother. The way Alca describes her Abuela is in a way that only someone who loved her grandma very much would. What makes this piece endearing is that she gives us an ending with hope, instead of a definite happy ending. Her piece is very smooth and I had a nice time listening to it.

Comment for "Youth Shelters"

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Review of Youth Shelters

A homeless person, most people think they're bums who are too lazy to get jobs, but this piece sheds light on that. This piece gives us great information about the topic of homeless youth. Many of the homeless people are run away youths with no home to return to. John Przyborowski does a good job of informing the listeners about this subject. While the overall piece had good sound levels and the background music had very nice leveling, the stuttering of his voice kinda threw me off. there were interviews with people who were knowledgeable about this subject, but it would have been nice if he had the point of view of the homeless youth. I think the piece would be stronger overall if they had opinion of the youth. Overall it was a good listen.

Comment for "Students ask each other if global warming is real"

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Review of Students ask each other if global warming is real

What got me about this piece was that it was educational, yet entertaining. As a high school student, I shun anything educational unless it's presented in an entertaining form. This is Shana's piece, entertaining and educational.

It starts with upbeat music and then gets into a humorous "green greeting". The speaker has a good pacing with her narration, not too slow or fast, enough to make you stay interested and entertained.

This piece would be perfect for a science class as an example of how students can help the environment.

Comment for "Dating, Romance, and Heartbreaking Robots"

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Review of Dating, Romance, and Heartbreaking Robots

needs music

Zoe High interviews three middle school "dating experts" on the subject of dating. She begins to explain her subject and then goes into the interview, which takes up most of the time.

Middle school students talking about the awkwardness of dating bring a light hearted and humorous mood. This is what got me listening to the piece from the beginning to end. It was fun listening to the piece, but some added background music would have made it more interesting.

We all have awkwardness with dating sooner or later, so I'm sure people can really relate to this subject.

Comment for ""Where The Ink Sinks In": Interview with Teen Graffiti Taggers"

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Review of "Where The Ink Sinks In": Interview with Teen Graffiti Taggers

When you think of graffiti it's, either "disrespecting a place" or "a piece or art". In this piece there is no discrimination against graffiti artists. It starts with a description of graffiti in an urban tone, then going goes into rap, and then transitions into the interview with turntable noises. This sets the perfect tone. The people interviewed share their story, creating a connection between speaker and listener. I've listened to pieces where this doesn't happen, but it does in here, and it does it well. People, especially teenagers, will connect with this piece because everyone has a passion and a story behind it them. The only complaint I have is how the producers did not explain a few terms here and there. This piece is just like the subject, an art form, so perfect that I wish there were more radio pieces like this. Ending it with the quote "I'll die with a spray can in my hand" leaves a powerful impression.

Comment for "AP Slackers"

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Review of AP Slackers

Students slacking off? Never head of such a thing! Is what I want to
say but all of us have been at that point where we all slack off, even
if we're not AP scholars. Heather Tyner puts together a piece which is short and straight to the point. She transitions from her narrations to her interviews in a way some people may call rushed, but it matches her to the point piece. The interviews had all the information we really needed. What amazed me was that the sound was perfectly leveled, it did not fluctuate up or down when you switched from interview to narration. This was the only thing that bothered me about the piece, it seemed too perfect.

Comment for "Your Own Anti-Drug"

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Review of Your Own Anti-Drug

As a person who has watched MTV's "the truth" commercials; hearing
about drugs has gotten slightly stale. Even with my previous opinion
about anti-drug media I decided to take a chance with the piece, "Your
Own Anti-Drug". Starting out with a soft melody, youth producer,
Alyssa DiMare, gets us into the mood of her piece The mixture of song and narration was near perfect, creating a gentle, somber tune. If I were older, I could say her voice sounds like a childhood friend who knows you and is tired of waiting. The narrators plead is what really catches me. A short, but powerful piece. I've never heard an anti-drug PSA , but this is a great start.