Hussman School broadcast alumnus accepted into NPR Kroc Fellowship program

UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media alumnus Parth Shah '15 has begun work as a Kroc Fellow at NPR in Washington, D.C.

Shah will report on NPR’s national desk, produce for Weekend Edition and write for one of NPR’s numerous blogs. He will also spend three months in a U.S. city reporting for a local NPR member station.

The Kroc Fellowship Program selects three aspiring public radio journalists each year to receive writing instruction for both on-air and radio performance, as well as training in pitching news stories, finding sources, booking interviews, reporting stories and working in the studio.

Shah started at UNC as a biology major until he heard NPR reporter Ari Shapiro speak on campus.

“Listening to him speak about his career and life inspired me. I wanted to do what he was doing, traveling the world, meeting new people and creating radio,” Shah said. “I changed my major to journalism, got an internship at WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR News Source, and took a summer news writing course.”

Shah then joined the school’s award-winning radio news magazine, Carolina Connection, and began producing radio features. As a student, he also founded a South Asian affairs magazine called Monsoon.

During his time with Carolina Connection, Shah said that Hussman School instructor and former NPR correspondent Adam Hochberg taught him how to pitch compelling stories, overcome his fear of performing an interview and how to find sound in unexpected places.

After graduation, he spent a year as a general assignment reporter in Madison, Wisconsin, where he completed the Lee Ester News Fellowship at Wisconsin Public Radio.

In his free time, Shah dances with Wisconsin Surma, the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Bollywood fusion dance team. Shah is also the founder and host of a podcast about identity called Hyphen.

The Kroc Fellowship has produced noteworthy media professionals in newsrooms nationwide, including NPR correspondent Ailsa Chang, technology reporter Aarti Shahani, national desk reporter Hansi Lo Wang and politics podcast co-host Sam Sanders. The program was started by philanthropist Joan Kroc, who donated more than $200 million to NPR in 2003 to strengthen the NPR news and digital media divisions.