CDI Scholars Are… Telling Stories That Matter
Young Arlo (left) pictured with his brother at CDI orientation.
Behind-the-scenes with Arlo in his role as a public radio host.
Has a slice of pizza ever changed your life? 🍕
For Arlo, CDI Class of 2012, a pamphlet promising free pizza – and an adolescent appetite – are what he credits with connecting him to CDI. It was over this lunch that he learned about becoming a CDI Scholar.
Arlo was fascinated with how the world worked, and the opportunity to become a CDI Scholar gave him the chance to dive deep into the question "how do I make college happen?" From increasing his ACT score by 4 points to understanding financial aid offers, the Scholars program made the "how" of college less mysterious – which allowed him to focus on the bigger questions the world had to offer.
When he chose to double major in Film and Political Science at Boston College, he didn't have an end goal in mind. "It was really funny," he said, "I always expected that Political Science would be how I made money, how I made my career." But then, in his senior year, he realized just how well his two passions could work together.
"The research and the ability to make concise arguments is what I got from PoliSci, and film was a way to express that to someone else, to make it interesting and intriguing, to make something exciting – I really was pairing these high concept ideas with a very accessible medium."
After college, he almost took a job as a surgical videographer despite being queasy – but the very day he planned to accept, he received another job offer that would utilize his film skills and feed his curiosity about the inner workings of the world. This big break was with NOVA, the most-watched prime time science series on American television.
Click to watch Arlo’s award-winning feature on COVID-19.
Over the next four years, Arlo would produce stories on everything from the opioid crisis in Buffalo, NY to life and science in Antarctica, the most extreme environment on Earth. His reporting on the underreporting of COVID cases and deaths in Mexico would go on to win an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021.
Today, he's off camera and on air as a host with Colorado Public Radio. He still credits that slice of pizza with charting the trajectory of his life and career. "Every success that has occurred in my life can be traced back to CDI. It can be traced back to a slice of pizza at my high school," he said with a wide smile.
"CDI is this organization that not only balances the playing field, it can change the lives of so many people. Donating to CDI is investing in the future of some of the most impacted communities that you can."
Your support of CDI extends beyond the impact it has on our Scholars – it improves our society. CDI Scholars pursue careers that help inform us, keep us healthy and care for us when we're sick, design tools that make life easier, and more. When you give to support them, you make the world better for all of us.
