Who were you when you started school?
Who are you now?
Who helped you get there?
Graduation is going to look a little different this year. As a way to help celebrate the achievements of students everywhere, StoryCorps is encouraging them to record a StoryCorps conversation with one of the people who helped them reach this exciting milestone.
Record their stories
Invite the students in your life to record a StoryCorps story with one of the people who helped them reach this exciting milestone.
Students’ interviews will be archived at the Library of Congress, becoming part of American history. Hundreds of years from now, future generations will listen in.
Great Questions Are a Great Place To Start
Not sure where to start? Here are some Great Questions to ask. You can download the full list here, use one of the selected questions below, or make up your own!
- What high school/college memory do you think will stick with you the longest?
- Is there a teacher or a class in particular that meant a lot to you?
- Have you learned anything from living through the pandemic? Have there been any positives?
- Is there any message you want to give to the graduating class? To the school?
- Do you have any advice for me?
Stories Celebrating Milestones and the People Who Helped Along the Way
Listen and share from our selection of stories:
Lessons Learned
From the first roll call of the 1964 school year, Dr. William Lynn Weaver was targeted and harassed by the faculty of his previously all-white high school. Then a former teacher stepped in and saved his life.
Read the full transcript here.
Double Major
When Wil Smith enrolled as a freshman in college, he brought an unusual roommate with him — his infant daughter. Wil and Olivia look back together on their days as college roommates.
Read the full transcript here.
Growing up, it was rare for Raymond Blanks to have teachers who looked like him — until he walked into Sean Lloyd’s 7th grade classroom. Now a middle school math teacher, Raymond tells Sean how he influenced Raymond’s life’s work.
Everywhere We Went, My Mother Would Make Sure That They Enrolled Us In School
Lourdes Villanueva talks to her son Roger about growing up in a family of migrant workers, and the dedication and hard work she put in to get her GED—and her desire to graduate before her own children got their diplomas.
Read the full transcript here.
I Told You That One Day, You Were Going to Go Here to Stanford
Francisco Preciado, who dreamed of one day becoming a teacher but was forced to drop out of school due to financial demands, and his son Frankie came to StoryCorps to talk about their relationship and their time together at Stanford — one as a maintenance man, the other as a student.
Read the full transcript here.