I wrapped up a 20-week long after-school outreach I’ve been teaching at an elementary school. I worked with two groups of students: the older group made a documentary about the experiences of their classmates who have moved to the U.S. from other countries, and the younger group made a collection of short instructional videos on topics of their choice (drawing, making a paper airplane, counting to ten in Japanese, making farting noises with your armpit, etc.).

The Youth Channel is online! Or rather, evidence of the Youth Channel’s existence is online. But that’s pretty exciting. It's one of the small but encouraging pieces that seem to be coming together with the Youth Channel.

What to do when you have a no show for an event?

Comment from Elizabeth Goussetis on March 2, 2009 - 1:01pm

Hi Janet! I hear ya on the dilemma of potential collaborations with youth organizations (especially when the timeline is longer than your time as a VISTA.) At Media Bridges we've talked about having some sort of process for partnerships with youth organizations, but it seems like each case is different in terms of what the organization needs from us and what they bring to the table. You don't want to turn anyone away, but you can only do so much. At first I tried to do everything myself in working with the organizations that I connected with, but now I've found it much more effective to funnel them to the resources and staff that can help them directly, rather than try to be the middleman. Have you had success with any particular type of project?

Comment from Janet Vo on March 9, 2009 - 1:35pm

Hi Elizabeth! I have not had much great success in collaborating with any groups. It seems like after the initial meeting the potential collaborations fizzles. I am in a Youth workers network for Asian American organizations though but we are still in the early phases of figuring out what kind of resources we would like to offer each other. I think they have the potential for being helpful, but its seems that I am on my own. However, I keep on going through this process because maybe a good relationship will build.

In October-November, AMI started, its fall media lab. This time around we’re not doing so much media as community leadership. We’re planning an art show this January. We’re taking in local youth art for said art show. The reason for all this, is a lot of the youth here(like most other small towns) complain about how there’s nothing to do.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 9, 2008 - 12:11pm

Sounds like a great idea using the media lab to focus on community leadership. Especially integrating youth via myspace. A lot of non-profits have been trying to do that in the last year or so. Definitely interested in seeing how you're using it to create that community.

Good luck on the art show! Will there be pics of it on the AMI site or myspace page?

Comment from Stewart Blair on January 10, 2008 - 2:18pm

yes, we'll should have pics and video of the event and some the work.

It's been one year. And all the should ofs and could ofs are now expired. But I think I've accomplished a lot of good things, learned a lot and definetely had a great experience.

It's recently come to my attention that I have disappeared from the face of the vista planet. So I have a small update.

Since March, this is what I have been doing at BNN:

- Taking inventory on new equipment

- Going and presenting our summer teen program at summer opprotunities fairs

- Learning how to use the new equipment

- Editing a BNN program called "Early Works" which is a compliation show of footage from recently trained producers

Comment from danielle martin on May 14, 2007 - 10:45am

We missed you on our lonely little VISTA planet ;) !

-Danielle

Illinois Institute for Entrepreneurship Education hosted the 2007 Youth Entrepreneurship Conference from May 3 -5, 2007 at the Lincolnshire Marriot Resort.  Youth throughout the Midwest attended this grand event to showcase their businesses and to compete for monies to promote and expand their companies.  Opportunities were also granted for youth to sell products or services in the Expo. The innovation of young minds was evident with businesses ranging from custom auto parts to Caribbean Cuisine. IIEE provided youth the chance to show everyone what they got in accordance with the event’s theme.

I'm back on the blog tip. We didn't have the net for a few weeks due to some funding issues. I had my own funding issues and I'm holding on with my finger tips, but its all good! We are in full effect at Jordan high located in Watts and I'm proud to be apart of such a life transforming project. The kids are really picking up video production fast and Ill post some of the project's as soon as they are done.

http://www.search-institute.org/assets/40AssetsList.pdf

This is a great link for anyone working with youth. It's a list of 40 Developmental Assets as compiled by the Search Institute... you can check out their site for other youth surveys, studies, and information.

Looks like I'll be learning how to use Audacity to do some music editing with charter high school students in Middleton, I'm excited to learn more about it!