Rocket Hour: John Marshall High School launches podcast to highlight student and staff voices
Apr. 4—ROCHESTER — In the basement of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, a principal, a student, a speech coach, and a counselor all sat down in front of their respective microphones and started talking.
They were recording the third episode of the Rocket Hour Podcast, a new project at John Marshall High School meant to highlight the voices of students and staff throughout the school community.
"That's the significance of this podcast," JM Principal Matt Ruzek said during the recording. "The better we understand each other, the better we function as this crazy family that is the JM family."
In a school of roughly 1,500 students, the podcast offers a chance to learn more about the people beyond everyone's own social circles.
In the course of an hour conversation, the group covered topics from the serious to the lighthearted: from whether they prefer pancakes or waffles and why, to talking about where they hope to see the school in years to come.
The student guest was Amir Omrani, a 16-year-old athlete. When Ruzek asked him to name the person who has been a big influence on his life, Omrani named a few including JM Football Coach Kyle Riggott. He said Riggott has helped him become the best version of himself.
Omrani went on to explain how he wakes up by 3:45 a.m. in order to be in the school's weight room by 5:50 a.m. He benches roughly 250 and deadlifts 600.
The counselor, Rebecca Senne, spoke about her job working with students and families as a chemical health worker.
"I'm very passionate about it," she said. "When I came to the public schools, my clients were like 'I'm sad to see you go, but I'm so thankful that you're going into a school because that's when I started.'"
The group was recording the episode in a converted storage closet, not much bigger than the table they were sitting at. Foam squares hung on the concrete walls to help the sound quality.
Chris Roberts, worship and arts director for Gloria Dei was also at the table, keeping track of the technical details while occasionally chiming into the conversation.
Gloria Dei is just a block away from John Marshall. The use of the church's recording space is the latest example of the partnerships the school has built with other entities in the community. It's hoping to build more, even within the context of the podcast. For example, Ruzek said they would love to get sponsors for the project.
The cast of the podcast will rotate quite a bit. During the inaugural episode, they talked about all the different voices they'd like to feature: teachers, students, coaches, alumni, you name it.
They hope to release episodes twice a month.
While the podcast may be most relevant to those within the school, Ruzek said it has already been heard in five different countries. By the time they were recording the third episode, they had 112 subscribers. The first two episodes each received between 250 and 300 streams.
"We are so excited to bring this to not only the Rocket community, but the greater Rochester community, and hopefully beyond," Ruzek said during the first episode. "It's just going to be a great opportunity to hear the cool things that are happening within the confines of John Marshall High School."
