Speaker Spotlight

Zacharie Sergenian is a Los Angeles high school student who has recently found his voice through storytelling. Six months after the Pacific Palisades Fire destroyed much of his neighborhood and his school, he worked with USC’s Wildfire Youth Media Initiative to create an audio piece about processing his grief as he moved back into his home.

In this piece, Zacharie captures the feeling of delayed processing of loss and the absence of life after disaster through a simple story of having a friend play his piano. Working with USC, Zacharie created this piece as a part of a wider program to have students report on the Los Angeles Wildfires, done alongside on-the-ground interviews in the Palisades and Altadena areas.

Zacharie is a senior at Palisades Charter High School where he continues to work on student journalism and pursues other passions such as music, LGBT advocacy, and lunch. Alongside this, Zacharie is currently working with the USC Center for Communication and Leadership Policy on exploring high school journalists’ role in local news coverage and
reporting.

Listen to Zacharie’s audio piece on KCRW:
https://www.kcrw.com/shows/kcrw-reports/stories/piano-palisades-fire