From KZSU to FM Synthesis: Oral History Summer Interns Dive Deep into Stanford Stories

This summer, the Stanford Historical Society (SHS) provided funding for three Stanford students—Zac Dulkin, Olivia Hartung, and Avery Hwang—to serve as interns with the Oral History Program, continuing an eight-year tradition of offering immersive, practical training in public history.

Established in 1978, the Oral History Program documents Stanford's institutional legacy by conducting interviews with faculty members, staff, alumni, trustees, and other community stakeholders. Since the program’s founding, student and volunteer interviewers and editors have helped to build its collections, which now encompass more than 1,400 oral history interviews.

Under the supervision of Oral History Program Manager Natalie Marine-Street, the interns prepared interview materials from the Stanford faculty/staff oral history project for deposit into the University Archives. They also conducted interviews with alumni and curated the SHS and University Archives collections for material for the upcoming 50 Stanford Stories for 50 Years project. 

Marine-Street remarked, "I'm continually amazed by what our summer internship program brings out in both our interns and our organization. This year's cohort exemplified everything we hope for—they approached their work with genuine curiosity and dedication, brought fresh creative perspectives to our projects, and demonstrated a remarkable passion for exploring Stanford's rich and varied histories. Together, we accomplished far more than any of us could have individually, and their enthusiasm reminded me why SHS’s work with students is so vital to our mission and the future of our organization."

Avery Hwang, a rising junior majoring in American Studies and Psychology, edited transcripts and prepared abstracts for interviews with Stanford faculty members, including Professor Steven Chu, Thomas Hamm, and Francisco Ramirez. She also conducted interviews for the Alumni Interview Series and the Graduate Workers Unionization at Stanford Project. 

Hwang’s summer experience caused her to reflect on the concept of “our place in time.” “I now understand what anthropologists mean when they say that culture is taken for granted,” she wrote. “Listening to people’s oral histories and uncovering small treasures in the archives has revealed to me the importance of documenting the present with the future in mind. Everyone has something to share, and everyone has something to gain from listening….The world continues to change at a remarkable speed, and I want to trace these changes—passing down stories, capturing one moment at a time.” 

Olivia Hartung, a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Design, came to the internship with a keen interest in the history of KZSU, Stanford’s radio station. She researched the history of the station, conducted interviews with two alums from the 1970s about their experiences, and curated a clip for the 50 Stanford Stories Project about the history of the station. She also worked on curation projects about The Stanford Daily, the 1994 Hunger Strike, and the Native American Cultural Center. Hartung remarked, “Hearing the stories and having the chance to fully immerse myself in the oral histories of others, those who experienced Stanford in a way I’ve never known, was enriching and engaging. I realized how truly exciting oral history is, especially because it captures people and their stories in time in a way that writing alone can not. It is special because it prioritizes and deeply humanizes its subjects. I found myself deeply engaged in larger ideas, such as my own role in shaping the archives.” 

Zac Dulkin, who graduated with a BA in Music (Composition) in 2025 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Music, Science, and Technology at Stanford, brought his passion for sound and his skills as an audio and video editor to the program this summer. He transformed the team’s curatorial visions into reality as he combined SHS audio and video clips with historical photos and film footage from the University Archives into sequences for the 50 Stanford Stories for 50 Years project.

He also developed a story for the project that was especially meaningful to him, a clip about Professor John Chowning and his groundbreaking work FM Synthesis. Dulkin remarked, “I particularly enjoyed curating a clip about John Chowning, the founder of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, which I’ve been studying at since my first day at Stanford. Looking into his revolutionary sound synthesis research, I discovered so many incredible archival photos of CCRMA’s early days; I even found a few of Chowning’s early unreleased compositions in the Stanford archives. They are powerful sources of documentation for his early experiments with frequency modulation synthesis, a discovery that changed the landscape of electronic music forever…It was a privilege to learn about these incredible discoveries through the voice of the person who made them.” 

To gain a broader understanding of archiving and the considerations of public history, the group also took field trips to the University Archives, the Palo Alto Museum, and the Archives Rooms at the Cantor Arts Center. “I got to connect with other local historians and curators…and learn about the daily practices and larger goals of careers in the field,” said Hartung. “Empathy, patience, and understanding were at the heart of this job, along with rigorous research, training, and communication. I look forward to conducting further interviews with the Oral History Program and bringing the many skills I’ve learned into both my artistic and mechanical designs.” 

For more information about internship opportunities for Stanford students, visit the SHS website.