Announcing Our Mini Generation Hope Podcast!

At Generation Hope, our Scholars’ stories and experiences drive everything we do. And so we were thrilled when one of our amazing summer interns, Mariana Erana Salmeron (William & Mary, Class of 2021), had the idea of developing a series of podcasts where she would talk with Scholars about their experience with Generation Hope, their academic journey, parenthood — and life in general.

Intern Mariana providing childcare support at Generation Hope’s Summer Bridge program in July

Generation Hope’s summer internships are designed to ensure a robust professional experience, while also providing an opportunity for our interns to explore how they might pursue their personal and academic passions in a career. To this end, each intern works with their manager to determine a substantive project to cap off their time with Generation Hope.

Mariana has long been interested in podcasts, and through creating this mini summer series for Generation Hope, she learned not only about the audio production and editing processes, but also the power of giving people the microphone to tell their own stories.

In these podcasts, Scholars Joseph, Elba, and Syeedah, describe some of the obstacles teen parents face — from mental health challenges to navigating a college environment that isn’t designed for young parents. We also hear about their tenacity and drive to keep going, in order to earn their degree and open new doors for their children and their families. The podcast series also has the distinction of being bilingual, since Mariana hails from Mexico, and was able to interview Elba in Spanish!

We hope our Scholars’ stories inspire you to join us in surrounding motivated teen parents and their children with the mentors, emotional support, and financial resources that they need to thrive in college and kindergarten. We’ll be launching a new episode each Monday for the next two weeks, and we hope you’ll tune in and help spread the word! Happy listening.