Senior Zakaryia Zidan is finding a way to leave a mark on the halls of Allen High School. His mark? A podcast dedicated to documenting the world as he sees it, now with a single focus: the students around him.

“I want to leave a little bit of the senior class the way I see us,” Zidan said. “We’re all such an eclectic mix of different people with different stories and I personally think that’s something special. This podcast is my way of trying to tell those stories or at least an aspect of them.”

Zidan isn’t doing this out of the blue, but for his International Baccalaureate  CAS project. IB students take on CAS projects, which stands for Creativity, Activity, and Service. According to Allen ISD IB’s website, each student is tasked with taking on a different project dedicated to helping the community in a way that matters to them. 

“It mostly centers around activity, as I’ll be working with all sorts of new people, but I’ve also been trying to work in some creativity as well through different bits I’d be doing during my interviews,” Zidan shared. 

Fortunately for Zidan, his CAS project does reflect the service that’s required. In spite of his policy of ‘anyone who wants to be interviewed can be,’ he’s spoken on how he wants to specifically interview students that are in some other type of volunteer organization. 

“I plan on making it a point to emphasize any volunteer organizations my guests belong to,” Zidan added. “So that whoever’s listening can join if they’re interested.”

For anyone interested in volunteering their efforts towards the community and having their story be told, Zidan can be found in Karen Hunnicut’s room, F165, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. He can also be contacted at zakariya.zidan@student.allenisd.org.

“I’ve met so many interesting people throughout my time in AHS and this is a way for me to sit down and get to know all these unique people I’ve met a little bit better,” Zidan said.