Community Service-Learning (CSL) offers University of Alberta students the opportunity to work and make a difference with a local community group, while reflecting and putting their experiences in context within a university course. These community partnerships provide opportunities for students to gain valuable experience, and to contribute and increase their awareness of the social and political life of their community.

CJSR provides CSL students the opportunity to learn how to produce an audio documentary on a topic related to their course.

Community Service Learning Documentaries

Three University of Alberta students worked on this radio segment for a Community Service Learning project for their Latin American Studies Popular Music class. The students collaborated with their Professor Russell Cobb and came up with the idea to showcase local Edmonton rap collective, The People's Poets. With the guidance of CJSR radio, the students interviewed Rod Loyola who hails from Chile originally and is now an MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie with the Alberta NDP. Rod showcased the origins of his own raptivism and how getting involved has helped propel his own passion for advocacy. 

Edmonton Raptivism, Nueva Cancion and the Politics of Involvement

The Ability to Inspire: Environmental Mindedness in Schools

Terra Informa - Dandelions: Aesthetic Crime or Unexplored Potential?

Terra Informa - Ecology and Feminism Part 1

Some say we're on the cusp of the 4th wave of feminism - fuelled by the millennial generation, pop culture, and the digital revolution. So what does the 4th wave look like? Megan Perram spoke with a local art collective called Tennis Club to see how it embodies the young feminist movement.

Megan produced this documentary during her time as a Community Service Learning student at CJSR. CSL gives University of Alberta students hands-on experience with community organizations to extend their learning in the classroom.

This documentary aired on CJSR news programs Generator and Adamant Eve.

Tennis Club & The 4th Wave

Creole languages and cultures around the world have more in common than you might think. Through music, family, and stories, this documentary explores creole languages in Peru, Mauritius, and Trinidad & Tobago (as well as right here in Canada).

Victor Eguren-Echaiz, Jarrett Mancell, Jayde Roche, and Avishta Seeras produced this documentary during their time as Community Service Learning students at CJSR, together with their professor Russell Cobb. CSL gives University of Alberta students hands-on experience with community organizations to extend their learning in the classroom.

This documentary first aired on the CJSR news program Generator.

Creole Languages

My name is Camille Enero and this is my first time working with CJSR and working on a radio documentary. I made this for my Latin America studies class. I called this piece Bad Words because I focused on their role on Spanish language education. I interviewed many people including other students, friends, classmates and professors. It’s a fun little piece filled with stories about how people have interacted with language learning, especially with learning prohibited language. I hope you enjoy! 

Music by: Dave Depper’s Picturebook, Maria Pien’s Fantasía en G para un pueblo al sur del mapa, and Fósforo’s Desconocido. (Accessed by: freemusicarchive.org).

The Creative Commons license is: Attribution, Noncommercial and Share alike.

Bad Words

In this documentary, Diana Chiang Jurado talks about how Argentinian rock (also known as "rock nacional") arose during the Junta dictatorship times. Argentinians rock musicians used music to send hidden messages within the lyrics to inspire and relate to the people, which is why it became so popular during the late 70s and 80s. It also gives and insight on why it makes an important part of the Argentinian musical identity.

Rise of Argentinian Rock During Dictatorship Times

This documentary was created by Victor Eguren-Echiaz, Avishta Seeras and Jayde Roche for Latin American Studies 330, The Latino Experience Abroad. Through this documentary we wish to explore how the portrayal of Colombians in North American media has affected the identity of Colombians living abroad and how they are perceived by others. We hope to change some perspectives on the topic by hearing from a few Colombian speakers as well as a masters student doing her research on narcoculture.


Over the years we have seen a rise in the North American fascination in Colombian drug culture, in this documentary we are going to take you into the drug culture of Colombia through the TV show Narcos.  We will be hearing from some Canadians as well as Colombian Canadians as they talk about the stereotypes they have faced while living abroad and discuss the inaccurate representation of many Colombians in the media. Many Colombians find themselves being associated with the dark history of violence in the country, in many cases these people are victims themselves trying to escape. This can all have a strong impact on Latin American identity by assuming that narcoculture is central one's identity and reinforcing these stereotypes through the media. For many Colombians living abroad, as we will explore through this documentary, the stereotypes also create a sense of national pride and wanting to change the perception people have of the country and its citizens.

Drugs, Violence and Pablo Escobar: The Colombian Experience Abroad

When faced with political rhetoric that seeks to potentially further the divide between nations, we take the time to examine the things that bring us together in the face of our differences, rather than separate us. In this radio doc by Mahad Omar, we look at the efforts being made by a local NGO here in Edmonton called Sombrilla, that brings youth together from Canada and Peru, to build a basis for the future generations interest in international development and relations.

Music Credits: Arturo 'Zambo' Cavero - Contigo Peru

What Brings Us Together

Jennifer McFarlane is an Elementary Music Teacher in Edmonton, Alberta. She had a strong desire to highlight First Nations, Metis, and Inuit music in her classroom lessons, but hesitated because of concerns of cultural misappropriation and lack of personal experience with these cultures. So she reached out to artists and culture bearers in Alberta and British Columbia to find out what resources were available to her, and what pitfalls should be avoided. The conversations exposed a whole collections of knowledges, experiences and issues surrounding this complex topic. This podcast contains excerpts from four of Jennifer’s interviews, and features a full spectrum of opinions on two questions: Should First Nations, Metis and Inuit music should be taught in a mainstream school system, and if so, how?

This podcast features music by the four artists and used with their permission:
When the Sun Sets Over the World by Winston Wuttunee
Throat singing and drumming by Jenna Broomfield, recorded with the artist’s permission on February 4, 2017, in Edmonton Alberta.
Mountain Metis  by Laura Vinson
Ninestosin by Winston Wuttunee
Nicimos (Sweetheart) featuring Wayne Lavallee by Sherryl Sewepagaham
Indian Alphabet by Winston Wuttunee

Indigenous Music In Education

This audio documentary is a Community Service Learning project by Nicosia Miller and Meagan Miller.  It covers the life and experiences of Tainos abroad, as well as the reclamation and revitalization of Taino culture in the U.S and the Caribbean.

Still Here

Safe injection sites to Edmonton, with plenty of controversy in their wake. In this radio documentary, Nika Henderson explores why. This documentary was produced as a part of a Community Service Learning placement with CJSR 88.5 FM.

Why Are Safe Injection Sites Coming to Edmonton?

Why do Edmontonians love Latin music so much? What does it mean to non-Latin American people? This radio documentary was produced by Avishta Seeras, Jayde Roche, and Samantha Lopez as part of a Community Service Learning placement at CJSR 88.5 FM.

Edmonton Loves Latin Music

Luis Alejandro Murcia wants to go back to El Salvador to become the President of the country. How does he plan on doing that? What influenced his decision? Find out more in this documentary. This documentary was produced by University of Alberta student Amogh Kadhe as part of a Community Service Learning project. In this story, Amogh speaks to Luis Alejandro Murcia and his sister Alejandra.

Dreams for a Better El Salvador

In this documentary, University of Alberta student Andrea Wiebe follows a group of high school students from all over the world who came together through a common passion: climate change. For two months leading up to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference in Edmonton, the students had been preparing themselves by participating in an online classroom sharing blog posts and video conferences related to the theme of "Cities and Climate Change." Andrea follows the stories of Sofia Velez, Suhanee Giroti, and the rest of their classmates as they write a paper together and present it to policymakers and researchers at the IPCC conference. 

The students' IPCC white paper can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ociumVehIHhw96hQdFANCbfluJ2okL8k/view

This documentary was produced as part of a Community Service Learning project.

Terra Informa - Youth Voices and Climate Change

What happens when you take capoeira, a martial art developed by slaves in Brazil in the 16th century, and make it mainstream centuries down the line? Does it still manage to still be a tool for the oppressed? Follow reporter Nathan Fung as he visits the Capoeira Academy in Edmonton to discuss the continuing importance of capoeira with the academy's instructor Reni Ferreira, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies professor Odile Cisneros, and two students at the academy: Raffy Boudjikanian and Mathieu Johnson.

This documentary was produced as part of a Community Service Learning project at the University of Alberta.

Capoeira and the spread of Afro-Brazilian culture from Latin America to Edmonton

Local artist Grace Law remembers visiting the Harbin Gate as a child in the late 1980s. Whenever her family would visit, from either Hong Kong or Calgary, they would get into the car and drive to Chinatown to take photographs of the Gate. Grace reflects on the Harbin Gate as a public space that is both personally and culturally significant.

Interview and editing by Brandi Kueber. This documentary was produced as part of a Community Service Learning project at the University of Alberta. It is part of a multimedia project capturing the history of Edmonton's Chinatown, called Figure 一，二，三，六，八.

Grace Law, Remembering the Harbin Gate

Emmy Mah was a young teenager when she came to Canada, and she was one of the very few Chinese females in Edmonton at the time. Due to this, she was asked to participate in the Klondike Days Parade Float in 1953. Her radio clip portrays a real sense of excitement as she reminisces about children smiling and her high heel shoes.

Interview and editing by Scott Bell. This documentary was produced as part of a Community Service Learning project at the University of Alberta. It is part of a multimedia project capturing the history of Edmonton's Chinatown, called Figure 一，二，三，六，八.

Emmy Mah On The Klondike Days Parade Float, 1953

Helen Kwan Yee Cheung, a 2013 M.A. University of Alberta graduate, pursued studying the Chinese community history in Edmonton through the lens of Cantonese Opera. She found that Cantonese Opera had elements of several social functions: cultural entertainment, philanthropy, and homeland politics. In this audio story, Helen talks about Cantonese Opera providing cultural entertainment not only for the viewers/listeners, but also for the performers.

Interview and editing by Scott Bell. This documentary was produced as part of a Community Service Learning project at the University of Alberta. It is part of a multimedia project capturing the history of Edmonton's Chinatown, called Figure 一，二，三，六，八.

This piece features a public domain recording of "White Hibiscus at Night," performed by Cantonese Opera star Peony Su. More info: https://archive.org/details/Peony_Su_White_Hibiscus_At_Night

Cheatsheets - Helen Kwan Yee Cheung On Cantonese Opera As Cultural Entertainment

We are Edmonton's independent, volunteer-powered campus & community radio station!

Broadcasting from the basement of the Students' Union Building at the University of Alberta located on Treaty 6 land, CJSR operates as a non-profit society and registered charity. 

Our mission is to “enlighten and entertain our audience through high quality and diverse programming that constantly challenges the status quo”. We do this by amplifying voices and perspectives often underrepresented in mainstream media. We provide a safe and inclusive (and fun!) environment for folks to learn the ins and outs of audio production, as well as educate listeners on local issues and stories.

Community Service Learning Documentaries

CJSR Radio