One student’s passion to create a video podcast club has become a way to showcase the voices of the Sidwell community.

On Founder’s Day this year, members of the Friends Inspire Video Podcast Club walked around—iPhones poised to record and film—and asked members of the community about their favorite part of the School’s annual tradition. “The Sidwell community is full of interesting and outgoing people so we were able to capture some fun and insightful answers,” says Manka M’mari ‘27 who founded the student-led club last year. 

Fellow club member Isabel Karam ‘27, agrees. “People were eager to chime in. We got a wide range of input from teachers, Upper School students, security guards, and even some PreKers, who were so cute,” she said. 

The Founder’s Day episode is the third of four episodes the club has produced, the last of which and will be released on Commencement Day. 

M'mari’s passion to connect with people and share their stories was the catalyst for the video podcast. The club was born from a conversation M'mari had with her then freshman year advisor, former Upper School Principal Mamadou Guèye. With his encouragement, she approached Sidwell’s Digital Producer Anthony LaFleur and Upper School Librarian Dr. Stephanie Gamble, both of whom are the club’s advisors.

The club, which now has six members, all from the class of 2027—M'mari Karam, Aayushi Jorgensen, Julia Tsao, and Ainsley Anderson—is finding its stride. M'mari and her fellow club members had a lot to learn about the whole process of creating a video podcast from start to finish. For M'mari, learning how to edit down hours of footage into a compelling episode took practice, patience, and perseverance.

This spring, the club released its second episode, which features an interview with Upper School Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs Nikolin Eyrich. “I loved learning that she was an elite ballerina,” says M'mari. “It’s details like that about people’s lives that help us connect with each other and enrich our School community.”

For next year, the club plans to refocus its lens on telling the stories of the silent champions, the hidden gems of Sidwell. For the first episode in fall 2025, they plan on interviewing the staff of The Fox Den followed by one with cafeteria staff. “Everyone has interesting stories to share about their lives. I can’t wait to jump right in again next year,” says M'mari.

In addition to expanding their output to monthly episodes, one of their goals for next year is to recruit some younger students into the club and teach them the ropes. “We want to get some younger kids involved, to pass on the passion of video podcasting. We hope our club will live on for years after we have graduated,” says Karam.

Watch episodes from the Friends Inspire Video Podcast Club here.