Anya Raetsch ’27
ALREADY AN ACTIVIST
If you’re not sure, don’t feel bad: Anya Raetsch ’27 wasn’t sure either — and she’s used to sussing out quirky facts from fiction each week.
Raetsch was part of a January broadcast of the popular NPR show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” an hour-long news radio panel show where panelists and contestants are quizzed on the mostly quirky news of the week. Millions of listeners tune in every week, either to the broadcast or its podcast — among them is regular-listener Raetsch.
Anya decided to throw her hat in the quiz-show ring on a whim, she says; she’s been a fan of the show from a young age. Every family road trip featured “Wait Wait” episodes.
“I really like it because it gives a dose of the week’s news and makes it entertaining; so it’s not as dreadful to listen to, or too negative to tune in,” she says.
Raetsch guessed the story about the Doritos flavor-maker was the true story. But it was actually the story of the mobster and Judy Garland’s famed shoes that was a true story. So unfortunately, Raetsch didn’t get the big prize: the voice of one of the panelists as your voicemail outgoing message. “It was still really fun!” she says.
While chatting about the NPR show, she notes casually that “I’ve been on a podcast before.” Her humility belies a bigger recognition. It was Raetsch who, as a student at Haddon Heights High School in New Jersey, campaigned to have public schools provide menstrual products for free in school bathrooms.
And here the NPR connection surfaces again: she was inspired in that effort by a different NPR podcast about “period poverty” — when women of any age can’t afford menstrual products. As her Girl Scout Gold Award community service project, she persuaded her school board to provide free period products to students, much like they do toilet paper, in their bathrooms.
Raetsch later pitched neighboring school districts to join the campaign, and several other towns also began providing free menstrual products.
Her efforts drew the attention of state lawmakers, and Raetsch was asked to testify about a statewide bill that would accomplish the same. A few days before she left for UNH, she was invited to the State House in Trenton to witness New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sign the bill into law.
It’s expected to take effect statewide for the 2024-25 school year. And she hopes to continue her advocacy work in the area of menstrual equity while pursuing her applied mathematics degree here.
Back to her NPR quiz-show experience, she recognizes that “Wait Wait” might not typically be the thing your average college freshman is listening to. In other words, she hasn’t been met with a wave of paparazzi, asking about her newfound “fame.”
The only feedback she’s gotten so far from her peers? “One of my friends in the dorm said, ‘My family listens to that show!’”