Calling All Storytellers!

CrossRoad Institute is starting a new project to understand how teenagers, young adults, and young professionals experience the world of AI.

Every day we hear new stories of how young people use and experience Artificial Intelligence: one day we hear a story of how it’s changing a major or career field, the next how it’s causing mental health challenges.

Through story, we want to understand your real lived experience as “digital natives”—how you use it, the questions you ask yourself as you do, the things that may excite you, the concerns you have about it, and/or the deep dark holes you’ve been in. You could—but do not have to—include where faith and your life in the Church intersect, challenge, illumine, question your understanding of the power and limitations of AI. What does it mean to be human in this new age of artificial intelligence?

Call for Stories

Tell us a story to help us understand what you’re living, seeing, and feeling. Show don’t tell. Show us your life; bring us into your world and the world of your peers, your studies, your places of work, your desktops, phones… anywhere and everywhere!

Why tell this story?

• Help your peers see what you’re experiencing and reflect more deeply, wondering about who we are and where we’re going.
• Help priests and lay leaders who are not digital natives understand the world you’re inhabiting.
• Help us wonder about the questions you wonder about; let your story be an invitation for others to wonder alongside you.

Story Ideas

• A story about a time when AI changed the way you saw yourself or another person.
• A story about a time when AI surprised you emotionally.
• A story about a time when AI made you think deeply about what it means to be human.
• A story about another way AI has impacted your life!

The only thing we’ll ask: do not use AI to craft, edit, or produce this story.
We want submissions to be 100% human.

Submission Details

Story authors must be youth and young adults ages 35 and younger.

Submissions can be in one of three formats:

• Written story (1000 words or more)
• Audio story (5 minutes or so—like a Moth Radio story)
• Video story (variable length)

Compensation for story submissions:

• All submissions following format guidelines above will receive $150.
• After the submission period closes, our editorial team will select ten stories for publication and broader dissemination. Those authors will receive an additional $850 honorarium, for a total of $1,000.

Story submissions are due September 1, 2026.

“What Makes a Great Story?”
with Fr. Sergius Halvorsen

Tuesday, August 11
7:00PM ET / 4:00PM PT

What we’re looking for isn’t a polished argument or a definitive opinion about AI. We’re looking for your lived experience. Bring us into your world. Tell us about a moment, a relationship, a decision, a surprise, a fear, or a hope. Help us understand what it is like to come of age in a world where artificial intelligence is becoming an ordinary part of everyday life.

To help with that process, we’ll also be hosting a session on storytelling with Fr Sergius Halvorsen. Together, we’ll explore what makes a compelling story, how stories differ from essays, and how to craft a narrative that invites others into your experience. Whether you’re starting from scratch or revising a draft, we’d love for you to join us.