From Classroom to Newsroom: Inside NPR with YDI
Some learning experiences stay with young people long after the lesson ends. For Youth Democracy Institute students this summer, standing around NPR’s iconic Tiny Desk, meeting Tori Kelly, and watching her perform just feet away will probably be one of them.
But the story did not begin with the concert. It began in the classroom.
Before visiting NPR, YDI campers explored digital citizenship, primary sources, misinformation, and disinformation—skills that are becoming increasingly important as young people navigate a constant stream of news, entertainment, opinion, and information online.
The numbers underscore why this matters. In a 2024 national survey of teens by the News Literacy Project, 83% said social media is one place they typically get news produced by professional journalists, yet fewer than 2 in 10 correctly answered all three questions designed to distinguish among news, advertising, opinion, and entertainment. At the same time, 94% said schools should be required to teach media literacy, while just 39% reported receiving any media-literacy instruction during the previous school year.
For us, that made taking the lesson beyond the classroom especially important.
At NPR, students stepped inside the world of journalism and media production. They toured the studios, met journalists and technical staff, and learned more about what reporters actually do—ask questions, gather information, work with sources, and develop stories for the public.
A classroom conversation about sources suddenly had people and professions attached to it.
Young people need to understand more than how government works to become effective civic leaders. They also need to understand how information reaches them, how stories influence what people know and discuss, and how to determine which information deserves their trust.
Inside NPR: Learning Beyond the Classroom
Seeing journalism up close made those ideas more tangible.
YDI campers interviewing NPR journalists and tech staff. YDI campers experience an NPR studio, taking their seats behind the microphones. YDI Summer Civics Camp students during their visit to NPR.YDI Summer Civics Camp students during the NPR welcomed YDI campers and introduced the journalists and production professionals they would meet
And then there was Tiny Desk.
Watching Tori Kelly perform added another dimension to the experience: the power of communication and storytelling.
Music and journalism serve very different purposes, but both offer young people an opportunity to think about audience, voice, storytelling, and how messages connect with people. Those skills matter for civic leaders, too.
Experiential learning works because it gives young people context.
A primary source means something different after meeting a reporter. Media production looks different after walking through a studio.
And an institution young people may know only through a podcast, social feed, or screen becomes more understandable after they have walked through its doors and met the people doing the work.
That is why experiences like NPR belong in civic leadership development.
The destination itself is not the lesson. What matters is connecting what young people learn in the classroom with the people, institutions, and experiences that make those ideas real.
Sometimes learning happens in a classroom. Sometimes it happens in a newsroom.
And sometimes it happens around a very famous desk—with a pretty incredible soundtrack.
Experience YDI.
Leaders Start Here.
What’s Next at YDI
Learning beyond the classroom continues this fall.
September 21 — YDI Civics Camp @ Richmond: Grades 6–8 | Explore civic institutions and leadership in Virginia’s capital.
November 3 — Youth Democracy Summit + Civics Fair: Grades 4–12 | Election Day civic learning, leadership, and student action.
Help Us Take Learning Beyond the Classroom
Experiences like NPR are possible because supporters help YDI open doors for young people. Your gift helps provide transportation, program materials, scholarships, and access to the institutions and experiences that bring civic learning to life.
Support the next YDI experience and help more young people see where they belong—and what is possible.
