Sophomore Brigitte Jia hosts an internet radio supported by Be The Star You Are, a charity organization that promotes positive media.

“We as young teen hosts get to go out and interview, through Skype, famous authors. It’s really cool and a great opportunity. I’ve been really enjoying myself,” said Jia.

Every week, Jia interviews famous authors, including worldwide best-selling authors. “I was kind of awestruck and thinking about how great these people are!” said Jia.

“There was this one author that I thought was so interesting. Our conversation ended up being about something like post-modernism and it was really cool!” said Jia.

“There was another author that had written about the Great Library of Alexandria from back in the day and her book talked about what could have happened if that library hadn’t burnt down. We expanded on that in the interview and tried to think about how the world would have been different without the Great Library of Alexandria being burnt down. That was a really interesting conversation and I had a lot of fun with that,” Jia explained.

Jia has hosted a few rising TV stars on the show as well, including the voice of Lucy in the new Peanuts movie. “I was pretty excited about that,” remembered Jia.

Jia discovered the Be The Star You Are program about a year ago while searching for volunteer opportunities on the internet. She came across this organization and was originally going to be a visual representative, making artwork with positive messages. Soon afterward, Jia met with Cynthia Brian, the head director of the Be The Star You Are foundation.

Brian thought that Jia was a good candidate to be a radio host. “She gave me that option and I took it thinking that sounds fun. So I started out with my own segment,” Jia explained.

In that first segment, Jia talked about art and art history, her passions, for 15 minutes. She soon ended up broadcasting hour-long shows and worked her way up to interviewing authors and TV stars.

Be The Star You Are also provides books to children’s libraries and supports literacy projects. Often, the organization holds book giveaways. “It’s really fun,” said Jia. “Whoever comes by, we’ll just hand them a free book to promote literacy.”