StoryCorps

I used StoryCorps to record an interview with my grandma at least 5 years ago, but neglected to publish or download it. Now that she’s no longer coherent, I went to look for it and couldn’t find it after the latest update. The customer service team was SO HELPFUL and figured out how to access it on my device when I had given up all hope, and now I have an incredible memory of my grandma that my whole family can love and appreciate. So thankful for the help from this team, and for their love of stories. It means everything.

When I was about 16-17 I had an assignment in my english class to interview somebody from my family using StoryCorps. I interviewed my grandmother, because she was my best friend and I understood that because she had many health problems (kidney problems, epilepsy, even cancer during her youth.) She likely wouldn’t be around as long as I wanted. I interviewed her, uploaded it on the app, got an A on my assignment and forgot about it. April 8th 2022 my Grandma passed away from septic shock due to an infection that none of her doctors caught. The whole family was as devastated as you can imagine, matriarchs are very important in my culture! About a week later, I remembered the interview, and after finally being able to log into my account, I had access to nearly 30 minutes of my grandmas beautiful voice and laughter. It helped my family get through one of our roughest times. So thank you StoryCorps ❤️

Update: with the newest release 3.2.0 out, I had my students update their apps and run some peer to peer interviews in class - looks like the major bugs are gone! All our interviews uploaded and there were no mysterious disappearances or struggles. UI is much nicer now too! Phew. _________ I recently used the app to run The Great Thanksgiving Listen project with my 10th grade history students. Each of them recorded a grandparent or adult in their lives using the app, and then we uploaded them all with a special classroom keyword. The app functionality was fairly straight forward and the process of recording/uploading for all 45 of my students was 95% great with a few exceptions- some of the interviews disappeared, some of them wouldn't upload to the site, etc. I think they are in process of fixing the bugs soon! Once we uploaded the interviews, my students did all of the photos, keywording and description writing through the website version of the app on the StoryCorps Archive. Much easier than typing on phones and the interface was more comprehensive. This is a great curriculum for history and social studies classrooms and I'm so glad I found out about it!