Sarah Young: From AFTRS scholarship to living the radio dream

“I didn’t anticipate that you could just ‘be on the radio.’ It seemed such a weird, magical job that you just don’t get to have. So it’s a real privilege to actually be doing it myself.”

Magic 899 Port Lincoln Breakfast announcer and recent AFTRS graduate Sarah Young is living proof that anything in life is possible, provided you’re prepared to put the work in.

Sarah – who hails from Perth – has a background in standup comedy. After moving to Queensland, Covid threw a spanner in the works. All her gigs suddenly dried up.

Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ became her new creative outlet. It was a hugely challenging time, to say the least.

“I’d just lost my dad after Covid happened and I was at this point of my life where I was in a marketing job, and I was rubbish at it,” Sarah says.

Wanting to learn more about radio, one day Sarah came across the Graduate Diploma of Radio and Podcasting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). She decided to apply.

“I just thought, I’ll give this one shot. I’ll just put all my devotion and thought into my application.”

“It’s not that you want to give up on your dreams, but a part of me just felt like I was done with everything, especially after losing Dad. I just felt like I had nothing left to give.”

Finding out she’d been accepted into AFTRS was exactly the boost she needed.

“It was huge when I got in. It lifted my whole spirit in every way.”

From a financial standpoint, though, Sarah couldn’t even contemplate being able to move to Sydney and do the course.

“At that point, I had nothing to my name. I was barely holding on as it was, like most people during that time. I really was living on a wing and a prayer.”

Applying for a scholarship changed everything.

Sarah says the process took a lot of time, consideration and deep contemplative thought.

Wanting to truly represent the spirit and values of each scholarship, she pored over the criteria, choosing to apply only for the ones for which she genuinely believed were the best fit for her.

“I really spent a lot of time thinking about what I could bring to the application.”

Sarah was accepted into AFTRS on the Pariya Taherzadeh Scholarship for Creative Excellence.

The annual scholarship is generously supported by AFTRS graduate and international award winning audio producer Pariya Taherzadeh (pictured above).

“Pariya and her scholarship – there’s no word you can really say to describe the impact of that kind of support and generosity,” says Sarah.

“I mean, my life is on a completely different track now. I wake up every day doing something that I have only ever dreamed of. And somebody acknowledged me, or at least acknowledged that I have the drive, the commitment and the creativity to do something more.”

“It’s such a huge honour, and I have so much love and admiration for everything Pariya has done in her career, too.”

So much did Sarah love studying at AFTRS, she literally couldn’t keep away from the place.

“You couldn’t get me out of the studio at night,” she laughs. “I was there for classes and then I would be part of the furniture until closing time.”

“Really, when you love it as much as I do, there is no downside.”

Sarah says working with AFTRS on its TikTok content helped her come out of her shell, in a big way.

“Thanks to AFTRS, I’ve stepped over the barrier of fear and tried all this new stuff.”

Sarah completed her AFTRS placement in Townsville, holding down a producing role at SCA stations Triple M and Hit.

“I had such a great time, working with people like Steve ‘Pricey’ Price and getting to see the giants of our industry in action. It was so inspiring.”

Upon graduation, Sarah utilised the many contacts she’d made through AFTRS.

She put herself forward for the Port Lincoln job and got it. Now, she couldn’t be happier.

“I’m so in love with regional radio. I think it’s where the heart of what we do lies.”

Sarah feels deep gratitude for her AFTRS experience and says Pariya’s guidance was central to making her radio dream a reality.

“She has no idea what she did and she would never ask me to wax lyrical. But with her generosity and her spirit she has contributed so much to my journey.”

“And for that, I will spend a lot of time in my career giving back.”

AFTRS is having its Open Day on Saturday August 3^rd. Learn more about AFTRS Scholarships here.