Unalaska, AK – The high school English as a Second Language class recently won a Spirit of Youth Award. The award honors youth across the state for positive contributions to their communities. The winners were chosen by a group of youth based in Anchorage. Aura Beatty's ESL class won an award in the media and technology category for their radio segment "Outdoors Unalaska," which airs on KUCB. Each month the class interviews a different person or group about their outdoor adventures, including long distance hiking and scuba diving. It requires them to learn about the outdoors so they can ask educated questions.

Then, they practice the different steps of making a radio story from editing the audio to writing a script to voicing the piece. The students said it helps them build new skills.

"The skills I learn are to be confident and to pronounce words more clearly," said Christian Esnardo.

"My voicing skills, listening skills, and being more confident to talk to other people or in public," said Jonah Rollin.

The entire class of ten students said they were very surprised but happy to win.

"We didn't expect to win," Ko Kawada said. "We did the interview for fun, but we were so lucky to win."

Rollin said it feels good. "We're very proud and thankful to all the ESL students."

One student will travel with their teacher, Aura Beatty, to Anchorage in March to accept the award at the Spirit of Youth banquet and the class will receive $250. The class was not initially chosen for an award, but the committee decided to reconsider and honor them because they received so many nominations from different community members.