Amplify Utah supports and facilitates dynamic journalistic storytelling to celebrate diverse points of view. By partnering with traditional media, we cultivate an environment that encourages stories be shared widely and made easily accessible for our communities to read, hear, watch and engage.
Sandy’s new female speaking club strives to amplify women’s voices
07-06-2025 By Savannah Stacey
These women have entered their public speaking era.
Utah Vipers women’s rugby team takes shot at a national title
05-15-2025 By Elle Crossley
There’s “no choice but to win” for this team, whose members range in age from 18 to 52.
80 Years Later: Student Documentary Revisits Utah's Topaz Camp
05-11-2025 By Jordan Thornblad
"It [is] so important to Utah history that we don’t brush this under the rug."
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When the COVID-19 pandemic began in spring 2020, it disrupted learning at Salt Lake Community College and forced educators to adapt to online learning and asynchronous courses.
George Ellington was ahead of the curve.
Ellington, who teaches English as a Second Language at SLCC, had already begun development of online courses. Now, SLCC offers six levels of ESL instruction at its Taylorsville Redwood, South City and West Valley campuses.
Ellington said he recalled a meeting with other SLCC departments, where one director said that many people “would be surprised how many courses are being offered” online. Ellington has taught at SLCC for 28 years, and spoke in positive terms about this growth in online learning, because it gives more flexibility to teachers.
The age range in ESL classes, Ellington said, is “between 17 and 71,” though the average age is between 20 and 30. Those in their 30s or older, he said, have less technological experience, and several students between 34 and 52 admitted to struggling with adapting to new technology.
It’s “not their fault they don’t know” everything about new technology, Ellington said.
Huda Alsakhi, a student from Iraq who identified herself as “older,” said she is “doing OK” with the classroom technology, though she acknowledged she is more comfortable “using older items” — such as planners and assignments on paper.
Elenora Bowen, one of Ellington’s students from Ukraine, said she felt comfortable in the class because “all the students are similar to me. We need to learn English. It is OK if I share with the group because all students are learning.”
At Salt Lake City’s Horizonte Instruction and Training Center, where ESL classes also are taught, Speartha Nyirazireze, a student from Rwanda, said her learning curve was steep.
“When I [first] came, for sure I did not even know how to turn [the] computer on,” she said. But, thanks to her teachers and classmates, she said, she learned how to navigate unfamiliar technologies.
A 2021 study by Dr. Nehaya Ahlamed at the University of North Florida found that “the integration of information technology … has no effect in many cases, and in some instances its application can even have a negative effect.”
Ahlamed wrote that her study found “increased multimedia technology distracts students from the studied material. A student does not gain enough practice in the form of dialogic communication and the formulation of ideas.”
Furthermore, she wrote, “learners cannot be 100% sure that the offered material will help them in learning the language.” This is particularly true with translating devices, as Alhamed noted: “With translation apps such as Google Translate, one can translate any word to English, but, in most instances, where one needs to translate a whole paragraph, the translation is never 100% correct.”
Ryan Lavine, who teaches technology classes to ESL students at Horizonte, said “tech comes as second nature to me, but not for everyone.” Often, the difference comes from their upbringing and cultural environment, he said.
Lavine’s older ESL students, he said, often forgot their passwords — sometimes more than once in one class session.
Horizonte has started offering ESL classes at more times, Lavine said — because many students need the flexibility to fit classes into their work schedule.
Ellington said many of his older ESL students have children or grandchildren who help them navigate English and online courses. He advises those students, he said, to enroll in SLCC’s basic computer classes.
One program, in particular, is the SLCC Summer Bridge program, designed for those who are undocumented, disabled, minority, low-income or first-generation students. The 12-session course teaches about tools students can use, including new technology. Depending on need, the process could lead to the student getting their own laptop, Ellington said.
Ellington said SLCC’s international department could go further in helping students settle into college. Students, he said, would be encouraged by meeting people who have experienced the same challenges they are facing.
Luz Gammara, academic advisor at SLCC, founded an ESL mentorship program called Amigos Mentores — where students who have gone through the ESL program and other courses can mentor newer students. The program’s principle is “learn, grow and share,” Gammara said, and the goal is to gain wisdom from others and pass it on to the next group of students.
Gammara started the program because of her own experience. Gammara, once a prosecutor in Peru, moved to the United States to find medical care for her young daughter.
Gammara didn’t know English, and a friend recommended she attend ESL classes at SLCC. Gammara learned her law degree didn’t transfer to the United States. She said she remembers someone telling her that “obtaining higher education was expensive and reserved for white people.”
Her academic adviser at SLCC told her to apply to a university anyway, using her old transcripts to earn credit. Eventually, she graduated with a master’s degree in social work — a field she chose because of the difficulties she experienced coming to a new country and learning a new language, she said.
This idea of passing lessons to the next group of students is common throughout the ESL program, Gammara said, adding that it’s how many students get help with both the language and technology barrier. Many of the younger students, Gammara said, help the older ones understand software like Canvas and other technical challenges, especially in the Amigos Mentores program.
Maria Ammar, associate dean of SLCC’s ESL program, said these legacy ESL mentors “know what students have gone through and give them guidance. Our students are a community [and] in the classroom our students are really willing to help each other.”
ESL scholarships are available, which should reduce the stress these students face. Gammara said SLCC could do more to promote the scholarships. She also said the ESL department should work more closely with the school’s advising department.
There is, Gammara said, “no excuse to not be successful in this country.”
Claudia Jahen wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Claudia Jahen wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
The Beehive, a garage-like venue and dimly lit vegan bistro decorated with punk art, is fostering a sense of community among young people looking for live music in downtown Salt Lake. Known for attracting alternative bands, new musicians and young adults to the stage, the venue offers a welcoming stage for those seeking connection
“Young adults feel like they don’t have a place to be and for lots of them, that place can be concerts,” said Andrew Earley, owner of The Beehive, formerly The Deluxe on State Street.
Since Kilby Court, one of Salt Lake’s earliest and still-running alternative music venues, opened in 1999, several others have begun to follow in the years since, including The Beehive, The Underground, Tiny Porch concerts in the 9th & 9th neighborhood and Fountain Records. Often, these venues, geared to those under the age of 21, are constructed out of repurposed spare spaces and stocked with second-hand audio equipment and furniture.
Opening a space for young adults who aren’t of legal drinking age has been a motivation for several of these alternative venue owners, including Adam Michael Terry, who opened the Fountain Record music collective and store in November 2023.
Creating a space for the under-21 demographic, Terry said, was one of his main goals for the weekly live jazz nights in the store’s basement. Salt Lake City lacked the jazz scene, he said, especially for those who couldn’t go to bars, and he wanted to create an affordable and accessible scene for young adults.
“Music scenes often rely on venues,” Terry said.
Earley, who is also executive director of the nonprofit Alternative Arts and Music Program Utah, said he had a similar vision for The Beehive when it opened in 2016. The venue and non-profit organization also work together to provide an affordable and accessible platform for artists, according to its website.
The size of DIY venues, often accommodating an audience of anywhere from 50 to 100, offers intimacy between the artists and the audience. More traditional venues, like the Delta Center, have around 20,000 seats, according to its website. Earley said he wants this intimacy to pull young adults together and inspire them to start playing music or to join a band.
He said he hopes “[the audience] can be empowered instead of awed.”
Earley said he also wants to move away from how traditional venues separate the musicians and the audience, with a large seating arrangement and a tall stage. Attendees can feel disconnected from the artists and artists can have a hard time interacting with the audience, he said. The environment of small DIY venues creates a better experience for both the artists and the audience, he added.
Young adults find a lot of value in the community surrounding local alternative music, said Aidan Hatch, who attended one of Fountain Records’ jazz nights for the first time in November. Knowing that the scene supports local business and creates a community space brings locals together, said Hatch.
“It’s very important because it’s a way to share experiences and because it’s unique,” he said.
Beckham White, a young concertgoer, said smaller venues that cater to younger audiences also foster an emotional connection to music and the artists.
“There’s always a want for places like this,” he said during a Nov. 7 jazz night at the store.
Earley added that non-profit and DIY venues are also much more accessible to young and new musicians because they charge fewer fees and are more likely to host unknown artists. This gives bands opportunities to grow and experience a different level of live performance.
He said giving young musicians their first professional gig is valuable because it creates energy and community among newer artists, both individually and as a group.
“Our ability to give that opportunity to new bands in a healthy scene is the biggest contribution The Beehive has had to Salt Lake City’s music scene,” said Earley.
Terry said he also enjoys mentoring young musicians who volunteer at the jazz nights, helping them hone their improvisational skills and learn to share the musical space.
“The evolution [of the scene] is for the musicians, who are still developing,” said Terry. “It introduces you to like-minded people and hopefully new endeavors.”
Sebastian De La Cruz, a bassist who’s been playing at Fountain Records for a few months, said the opportunity to regularly play live with other artists is important for new musicians. He said he’s learned more not just about music but also about himself as an artist.
“Playing live with other musicians is the best practice you can get and a great way to get [to] know music through the people you meet,” he said.
For some, the alternative live music scene is also a place to foster counterculture and to advocate for what they believe in, Earley said. The goal for some venue owners is for that space to be healthy and safe while still impactful, he added.
“Everywhere you have a dominant culture, there’s a significant pushback. People don’t have a place, and alternative music can resonate with these people,” said Earley. “It’s healthy counterculture.”
This article was published from the University of Utah’s COMM 1610 class.
The Logan City School District has updated its policy on symbols in classrooms, after months of debate over the presence of rainbow pride flags in classrooms.
The policy went into effect March 3, after a 3-2 school board vote last December to revise the district’s Standards for Media Use policy to support Utah state code, which says any classroom materials “do not display materials that endorse, promote, or disparage a particular political, personal, religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheist belief or viewpoint.”
Under the new district policy, a school’s principal does not have to remove personal items — including pride flags — from a teacher’s desk as long as they “do not disturb the learning process.”
Before the district enforces any changes, Superintendent Frank Schofield and the district’s five other board members plan to offer training to administrators on how to implement the policy in unique situations. The administrators will then train their own staff, according to Shana Longhurst, the district’s director of communications and public relations.
“We know there are going to be a lot of novel situations that are going to come up, just because of the complexity of the issue,” Schofield said.
Frank Stewart, the board’s vice president, said the policy and training will help teachers better know the answers and processes for student and parent concerns.
“We just want every teacher to have and feel like they have the backing of our administration in every circumstance, so that they have answers when a parent comes to address on specifically about their student or their child — that there’s a good process in place to make sure that we consider all the options on ways that we can best help them,” Stewart said.
Board member Larry Williams agreed, saying “we want to minimize putting the teacher on the spot. … And that’s why there’s going to be a building administrator principal involved in determining what’s appropriate.”
Schofield said the board has delayed putting their training together, so they could take any changes by the Legislature into account, specifically relating to neutrality in classrooms.
The policy states: “Materials that do not convey the District’s educational message, or are determined by the building principal to be in violation of the guidance in this policy, may be removed by the school principal. An educator or other employee who uses instructional time or space to convey a political, religious, or personal message after being directed not to may be subject to disciplinary action.”
However, Longhurst explained, the policy “does not require anyone to remove anything from their classroom, unless it violates the policy. Nothing needs to be removed at this point and will not need to be based on the implementation of this policy.”
During a Sept. 13 school board meeting, Andrea Sinfield, a Hillcrest Elementary School parent, kick-started the conversation about classroom symbols when she expressed concern about a pride flag sticker with the words “Safe Space” on the front door of a few kindergarten classroom doors in her daughter’s elementary school.
Sinfield said it feels like nothing has changed over pride flags in classrooms.
“It’s a little disheartening to me, because of all the work that [we] have done to try to create a neutral classroom, because that’s what it is,” Sinfield said.
Jay Bates Domenech, a senior at Logan High School and president of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), agreed that there has been little change since the policy went into effect.
“The only change I’ve really seen is actually an influx of teachers putting up pride flags,” Domenech said.
However, Domenech did say he was concerned that, after the administrator training, their principal may be more strict with implementing the policy than other schools in the district.
The implementation, Domenech said, “is just going to make it a more hostile environment. We already don’t have a super-amazing, supportive school — and that goes for a lot of things, like not only queerness but also, like, people of color and undocumented people, etc. But, like, I just think it’s going to increase the kind of otherness of queer students.”
Sinfield suggested that the Logan City School District could implement a policy similar to the Cache County School District.
She referenced a picture of a flier outside a Green Canyon high school classroom. The flier pictured several students — including a student in a wheelchair, students of color, and another wearing a rainbow shirt — with the words, “Safe, Welcome, Invited. Our school is a safe place where everyone belongs. Come, learn with us.”
Schofield said that there hasn’t been a discussion with the board yet on creating a similar district-wide symbol for inclusion.
“As we have the conversation of ways to communicate inclusion for all students, one of our board’s commitments is to do that in a way that doesn’t inadvertently send a message of exclusion for groups that identify with a particular symbol,” Schofield said. “We haven’t finalized anything, because our board is extremely aware these images have strong emotional impacts on students and their families.”
Stewart said the board and district’s decisions centered on trying to help everyone feel included.
“It really is our hope that we can continue to do everything we can to help students feel accepted in every capacity,” Stewart said.
Jenny Carpenter wrote this story as a journalism student at Utah State University. It is published as part of a new collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Jenny Carpenterwrote this story as a journalism student at Utah State University. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
In the home of Darren Parry on a Sunday afternoon, five Salt Lake Community College students circle the former Northwestern Shoshone Nation chairman for a conversation about the crisis facing the Great Salt Lake.
Parry’s gaze, meanwhile, remains fixed on the camera in front of him. Visible over his shoulder, in the frame of the camera, are three framed photographs of his ancestral family. They were Shoshone people, remnants of the 1863 Bear River Massacre, who were later baptized by Latter-day Saints in the same river.
For Parry, his ancestral history serves as an example of how westward colonizers pushed Indigenous people from their homes. When Utah eventually sprung into statehood, Parry pointed out that Indigenous people “were not given a seat at the table,” here in the state or anywhere else.
The latter point is what informs Parry’s views on current efforts intended to help the dwindling Great Salt Lake, and it’s why the crew of students visited his home for an interview. “We’ve scienced this [Great Salt Lake] problem to death,” said Parry, who goes on to add, “We have to start looking at the problem from a … different view. Why not maybe an Indigenous view?”
This conversation with Parry was one of several interviews that the student group conducted for a new documentary covering the lake. They decided that the film should focus on “Indigenous stewardship,” a term that refers to the notion of Native people being at the helm of environmental decision-making.
Titled “Diverted: Indigenous Stewardship and Saving the Great Salt Lake,” the 30-minute documentary is set to premiere Friday, Dec. 8, at Salt Lake Community College’s South City campus. Its premiere comes after months of work, which was carried out by the student group for a course at the college.
Those involved in the project – seven students in total – said they wanted to tackle an urgent subject matter.
27-year-old student McCaulee Blackburn, co-producer of the film, recalls first learning about the climate crisis at age 11 and subsequently wondering what lay in store for the planet.
Like perhaps many young people today, Blackburn said growing up and moving through life was accompanied by “constant climate anxiety” over their future – a future they felt had been stolen from new generations. So, when a SLCC film student pitched the idea of a documentary tackling Great Salt Lake to Blackburn in January, hopping on board seemed like a no-brainer.
At the time, Blackburn had just finished an internship with the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a group of media and education organizations that joined forces in 2022 with the goal of informing the public about the lake and its declining water levels.
During their internship, Blackburn spoke with water experts and wrote articles communicating ways to help the lake. However, they noticed that solution talks almost always tended to omit Indigenous perspectives.
“I knew that if I was going to work on a project about the lake, I wanted to make sure Indigenous people were being centered,” Blackburn said.
Of particular interest to Blackburn was the notion of Indigenous stewardship. They aimed to explore the science of the lake as well as how a different set of hands – those with a link to the land – would manage Utah’s water resources in contrast to the state legislature.
Blackburn initially recruited two fellow SLCC students to work on the project. One of them was friend and SLCC film student Valene Peratrovich, who is also an alternating host of KRCL radio’s Sunday morning program, “Living the Circle of Life,” a show dedicated to the Indigenous people of Utah.
Born in Alaska with ancestry from three separate tribes, Peratrovich said she has experienced firsthand the connection that Indigenous people have with nature and the earth. Blackburn’s sentiments were much the same: “Impassioned,” Peratrovich said.
“As an Indigenous woman, it was crazy and relieving to know other people care; that I don’t have to be the only one … trying to push things forward,” Peratrovich said. “Someone sees me, and I see them.”
The three-student group began producing their documentary outside of a class or work setting, relying solely on personal equipment. Then, in the fall, Peratrovich enrolled in a documentary production course at SLCC and pitched their idea to the class as a potential pursuit for the semester. Much to Peratrovich’s surprise, the class selected her pitch.
Student Kolby Butts, who serves as co-director of the project, had also pitched coverage of the lake separately from Peratrovich. Butts said reading about the lake’s lowest recorded point last November prompted him to bring this pitch forward over other ideas he’d been considering.
“Our lives are on the line,” Butts said of his reasoning. “We’re now trying to preserve our spot in the future so we can continue for more generations. But in the current state of the world, we can’t do that.”
Butts hopes the documentary, with its features of expert voices and various images of the lake, can help more people connect with the issue and influences audiences to consider the perspective of Indigenous stewardship.
“The biggest goal of this was to bring this story into a new medium,” Butts said. “We’ve seen dozens upon dozens of articles … Reading stuff like that works, but I don’t think it gets the point across.”
As the student group readies to premiere the 30-minute documentary – which features interviews with Parry, water and climate professors, Carl Moore of PANDOS, and Elizabeth Kronk Warner, dean of the University of Utah school of law – their plan is not to move on but rather to expand what they’ve already created, with hopes of eventually creating a feature-length documentary.
“We’re going to the wisdom keepers, scholars and community members, and bringing them all together to find the commonality,” Peratrovich said.
Watch the trailer for Diverted: Indigenous Stewardship & Saving the Great Salt Lake.
Cristian Martinez wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a new collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Cristian Martinez wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
