Levine Live- A Podcast to Bridge Current, Future, and Previous Scholar Experiences – Chandu Changalvala ‘25
“I can remember what we did every single day at NOLS.” Dhairya smiled challengingly at me and Kayla. We believed him in an instant, he has always been very good with his memory.
It was a late hour at night, the three of us and a few other friends sprawled on my dorm floor reminiscing our time when we weren’t confined to Levine hall’s roof but instead a sky where we could see the whole milky way. We spent hours chasing away our sleep, starting from how we felt landing in Lander, Wyoming to getting to base camp and finally beginning our backpacking journey in the backcountry. Dhairya talked about what routes we took, funny trail stories, and the leaders of the day, as Kayla and I pitched in with our anecdotes and memories, finding a thrill in getting reactions out of our friends as they listened intently.
It wasn’t long before we were itching to get reactions from our community and were pitching the idea to Dr. Zablotsky who was quick to support our idea of doing so through a podcast. The three of us put more thought into how this podcast and youtube channel would be helpful in addition to a fun way to share our stories and decided this would be the perfect way to involve every first year class moving forward, with finalist weekend.
Established in January of 2022, Levine Live is now intended to become a legacy project. Every first-year class of the Levine Scholarship Program will be able to use this podcast, YouTube channel, and any other forms of media to share their experience at NOLS, their first semester in college, and advice that will welcome incoming first years.
First year Levines’ can bond, as Dhairya, Kayla, and I have, spending hours creating fun logos to represent our podcast, animations, and intro and outro music that our very own friend Jack Pamukci produced. And perhaps most importantly, we hope that this podcast serves as a historical account for all Levine’s, to remember back to a time when they were also brand new first year’s, soaking up their first Levine summer experience out in the backcountry- where they could just live, have a good time, and not worry about the outside world. To remember the laughs, the tears, and the lessons learned while getting lost in the hours of recording one hour podcasts, editing the bloopers out of the YouTube videos, and talking to their fellow Levines about their experiences.
We hope to start conversations, bond over memories, and bring our Levine community closer. With just one week before finalist weekend, Dhairya, Kayla, and I have plans to include alumnus, more of our cohort, senior Levines, and administrators. We have plans to give you honest, down to earth, and mundane advice from three University of North Carolina at Charlotte students to others.
We hope you can see our excitement in each episode and enjoy hearing the adventures that our cohort and the Levine Scholars Program has embarked on so far. We can’t wait to see where Levine Live will go in the future and all the new adventures that have yet to be told.
You can find our podcast on Spotify and Apple Music
You can find our YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/3IQoOEz