Skip to main content
Project Voice 2020 Rising Voices Scholarship Program: Meet Our Podcasters

It’s near the end of the year, so you know what time it is! My fellow Project Voice 2020 Rising Voices Scholarship Program Mentors and I are very excited to unveil to you our mentees’ newly launched podcast series!: 70percentcoverage by Nisha Patel, Uprooted Igorots by Shania Ambros, and Failed by Academia by Karishma Kasad.

Scroll down to read more about each of our scholars and their topic proposals (subject to change)! We’re so proud of each and every one of them for making this far. Please continue supporting their journey after tuning in their first few episodes.

The Project Voice team is excited to share with you next year’s plans soon.

Until then - keep in touch,

Jessica Nguyen

Project Voice, Founder

1) NISHA PATEL (she/her/hers) is an award-winning queer Gujarati poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the Canadian Individual Slam Champion 2019. She is a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award. She is also the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her debut collection is forthcoming with Newest Press. Nisha works to further her goal of building a stronger artistic community through living in her truth. 

📍 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ABOUT 70PERCENTCOVERAGE:

The story behind 70percentcoverage starts with a very traumatic life event: my diagnosis with a new, lifelong chronic illness. I had planned to launch a podcast over the summer that explored poetry and stories, conversations about verse and craft, but increasingly I found myself staring at a microphone thinking 'There are more important things I need to talk about right now', and those things became this huge, monumental way my life had turned upside down.

As I read more about my illness and prognosis, I started encountering barriers in getting healthcare, talking to insurance, calming and appeasing family members, and adjusting to a new normal routine of medication and self-care. As I opened up on social media, people started messaging me with their own personal health journeys, diagnoses, and grief, and I knew there was something we could do with all that pain and also healing. In the end, I've seen doctors more in the last three months than I have in three years, and I think it's time I really started exploring how strong I am and will become, through stories from myself, and my friends who have been suffering in silence. 70percentcoverage refers not only to the common level of monetary coverage you get in Canada, but to the idea that not everyone in society is covered or cared for at all. The other "30 percent" fall through the cracks, some deep and dark, and emerging from them can only happen if we all know what's happening, and how our fight for equity includes health and wellness.

CLICK HERE TO TUNE IN.

Facebook: @anothernisha
Instagram: @anothernisha, @70percentcoverage
Twitter: @anothernisha
Patreon: @anothernisha

2) SHANIA LOUISE SAGRA AMBROS (she/her/hers) is a 20-year-old Igorot-American residing in Boston, Massachusetts. Despite immigrating to the States at a young age, the Philippines has always had a place in her heart. However, the limited media representation of Filipino and Filipino-Americans skewed her understanding of her own identity. Shania aims to produce multimedia work encompassing Igorot cultural education and appreciation, so that the Filipino narrative can recognize its diverse Indigenous identities.  

📍Boston, Massachusetts, USA

ABOUT UPROOTED IGOROTS

I took a chance on Uprooted Igorots because I believe podcasts can potentially raise awareness about underrepresented identities and bring together a global community. 

There’s a lack of diverse representation of Filipino identities and cultures within the Filipino and Filipino diaspora. Since media representation and social groups based outside of the Philippines mainly focus on the "national identity", any identity outside of that cultural relativity gets overshadowed and oftentimes invalidated. 

Igorots are Indigenous people from the Cordillera Administrative Region in Northern Luzon, Philippines. Outside of the Igorot community, these people would be seen as historical primitive tribal warriors, an exhibition from the 1900s World Fairs, or described as uncivilized people with tails. This lack of knowledge and recognition is harmful for youth like me because our Indigenous identity wouldn't feel like something we could be proud of or share with others. The Uprooted Igorots podcast serves to share the living experiences of Igorots in the diaspora and be a source of light for folks to recognize that Indigenous Filipinos exist in the present.

CLICK HERE TO TUNE IN.

Facebook: @uprootedigorotspod
Instagram: @ainahsamit, @uprootedigorots

3) KARISHMA KASAD (she/her/hers) is an asexual, Asian American aquarius aiming to acquire astounding audio programme abilities. Alliteration aside, Karishma has simultaneously lived the Asian parent’s dream (by being accepted into a top 10 medical school) AND nightmare (by realizing it wasn’t her calling and leaving without an MD trailing her last name). She has since been accepted into a PhD program; thus once again putting herself on the track to become a doctor: just not the kind her family would brag about. Karishma has a soft spot for comedy and loves to make people laugh as much as she loves to learn.

📍Detroit, Michigan, USA

ABOUT FAILED BY ACADEMIA
Podcasts are a fantastic medium for storytellers, so I wanted to focus on the stories of people we don’t usually hear from. Black, Indigenous, and people of color’s experiences in academia are shockingly different from their white peers. We often talk about their successes, but not the more troubling aspects of racism and sexism faced daily.

Higher education tends to attract progressive thinkers, but like most institutions- it's resistant to change. We take universities at their word when they talk about their commitment to diversity. However, they often settle for a superficial IMAGE of diversity: something they can put on brochures. They have yet to do the dirty, difficult work of unrooting decades of systematic racism. Even BIPOC who have “made it” and are working in higher education continue to face barriers. This makes the ivy tower a hostile place for colorful individuals.

As I started to accrue my own stories in medical school, I felt completely isolated. It wasn’t until I was out of my program that I realized that my horror stories weren’t unique. I created Failed by Academia to allow BIPOC academics/in higher education to process their experiences through storytelling and to help our listeners know that they’re not alone.

CLICK HERE TO TUNE IN.

Twitter: @effedbyacademia, @IsticuffsF