Attending one of the public high schools of the Montebello School District helped me find a voice in my times of discomfort, during which I drew myself further from the person who I thought I needed to become in order to actually understand the person who I was.
The platform where I was able to take a grander perspective on where my passions and priorities were: high school journalism.
As I briefly mentioned in my life map, I was a member of my high school's nationally-recognized journalism team. While my school was getting the bad end of the NCLB stick for low scores on our AYP, my journalism team was being recognized among the other top high school newspapers from both public and private schools across the States and among other American schools abroad.
However, journalism was greater than the recognition among other schools and the national conferences that we were able to attend as long as we were able to pay for a plane ticket.
Before ever applying to be a part of the staff--or even to be a reporter--all students went through the most challenging class: Journalism 10: Introduction to Journalism with, then Mrs. Wellenstein, who was both the journalism adviser and teacher at the school. However, she was most popularly known for her professional attitude that intimidated every student and challenged her students to think beyond their comfort.
Ultimately, I came out of the class feeling so defeated. While my grade showed an appealing A, I felt defeated because all of what I assumed I knew about others, as in their stereotypes and histories, were so wrong. News, feature, opinion, entertainment, and every other sort of article deserved its own sort of attention and style, and I had to adjust the ways in which I wrote and communicated with others.
Reporting as the timid, scrawny, barely going through puberty Asian tween in a high school where I knew no one and in a community that I never before consciously built connections was more intimidating than the "Wellenstare," those eyes of disappointment Mrs. Wellenstein gave to students who she just knew wouldn't give their full efforts to an assignment. I was so used to writing for the grade and in my five-paragraph framework. I was so used to believing that communicating meant getting an answer out of someone and, more specifically, finding an answer that I already expected.
However, after my one year of introductory reporting and three years as a Copy Editor to our staff, the articles that were produced from those initial sets of questions, that which only had three or four questions relevant for the actual interview, elicited greater sense human connection. I fell in love with writing and interviewing, in that process of communication and what can be learned from it.
It's strange because I came to Berkeley believing I would continue with journalism because of what I had taken away from it and the interests that I built from stories in social constructions, school policies, education, the arts, and in the power and privilege of having a voice. However, I was so overwhelmed with trying to impress the school by focusing on my classes, that I pushed away the only thing I knew I loved. My drive and aggression to write articles and editorials began to erode, and I feel sad to say that I don't think I have that same drive and passion--or that voice--that I carried with confidence as a teenager in high school.
Last Monday, when the students of the class were invited to listen in on the talk by Elizabeth Soep on Youth Radio and its relationship with Youth Media International. Her talk reminded me about the power in allowing youth to have an outlet for their voices. Soep said that one of the most fundamental structures that makes Youth Radio so successful is its use of "collegial pedagogy," which is the youth and adult collaboration to produce something that may be significant for both parties and that neither age group can do better without the input of the other.
The following is a video demonstrating how the power of this collegial pedagogy can create interesting pieces of journalism, of reporting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ1mCTQx3UI
- Karina is the teenager who filmed the event
- Denise is one of the staff members of Youth Radio, who tracked Karina through a MySpace search and helped make the video and format the story that is still essentially Karina's.
In my own roots with youth journalism, and as I have seen embedded in an organization like Youth Radio, I have been able to establish greater relationships with myself and my community through the power of a voice. My voice had the privilege of having my high school newspaper as a platform, but it was only through the confidence and support of my adviser Mrs. Wellenstein that I really got to challenge myself in understanding what voice I wanted to carry.
I hope that organizations like Youth Radio will continue to support the flow of communication so necessary to getting a community and groups of people to connect and work with each other for common goals that oftentimes get lost in translation, assumptions, and manipulation.
--Steph Wong
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