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Urban Teenagers Grow 25,000 Pounds of Organic Produce to Relieve Hunger |
| There's an oasis a mile off of Highway 183 in east Austin, Texas, where industrial sites and waste dumps bump up against apartment complexes and humble homesteads. A handpainted sign points up a dirt road: Urban Roots. This land in a hidden curve of the Colorado River is a cultivated organic farm where youth work the soil from 8 am to 3 pm, learn the principles of sustainable agriculture, grow fruit, vegetables, and flowers, and share their produce with people in poverty. The interns earn a stipend of $40 a day for working seven hours a day, but money isn't their first motivation. | |
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Guns, Germs, and School: Young New Yorkers Probe the Problems of Their Age |
| At a recent meeting of social science researchers, a youth dressed up as "Dr. Researchy" took the stage. Clutching a sheaf of papers, he mumbled his supposed academic findings about “this problematic situation” of urban adolescents. From across the audience, one could hear young people’s voices calling out in protest. One by one, the young members of New York City's "Polling for Justice" research team brought their political theater to the stage—and their own conclusions from a study that was collaborative, youth-led, outspoken, and authentic. | |
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Afterschool Matters: Youth Speak Out |
| Under a warm April sun on the West Lawn of the White House, 600 parents, students, educators, and youth advocates from Vermont to Texas took their seats. They had gathered with one goal in mind: to rally against proposed cuts to federal funding that would shrink afterschool options for youth nationwide. Whether they spoke out as legislators or from more ordinary perspectives, all knew the power of afterschool programs to change young lives. It was the teenage speakers, however, that brought the audience to its feet. | |
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Boyle Heights Through the Eyes of its Youth |
| What can high school students in an urban neighborhood on the East Side of Los Angeles learn from young people almost 10,000 miles away, in a rural village in Tanzania? Plenty. A transformative experience began for a group of Roosevelt High School teenagers when Steve Mereu, their teacher at the School of Law and Government, introduced his senior class to a WKCD photo essay book in which East African youth documented their everyday lives.Mereu and his students were joining an extraordinary grass-roots movement of teachers and students across the globe to show their communities—from Philadelphia to the smallest village in Japan—from the perspective of young people. | |
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The Best Class of All: Words of Wisdom from Boys & Girls Club Teens |
| Long known as a place to throw some hoops or hang out, for its summer camps and childcare, the Boys & Girls Club of Chattanooga—and across America—are sharpening a new image: a place for teens with the drive for college. “I don’t need anybody to be on my back, but I do need encouragement,” says sixteen-year-old Tunisha. “And that’s what I get here, at the Club. It gets me out of my comfort zone, it teaches me to ask for what I need to succeed.” | |
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Building Community, One Soccer Field at a Time |
| Professional soccer’s top competition will be played in South Africa this summer, and the country is buzzing with excitement. Not only will it be the first time The FIFA World Cup has occurred on African soil, but it also recognizes soccer’s importance to this historic land and its youth. “It’s more like a religion,” explained Kyle Weiss, 17-year-old founder of FUNDaFIELD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of African youth through soccer. | |
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You Don’t Know Me Until Now |
| In this collection of writing and media from middle school Latino/a students in Austin, Los Angeles, and Oakland place, identity, and culture rule. Brought together by WKCD and the National Council of La Raza as part of a service-learning project, these young authors fight stereotypes, share what makes them who they are, explore their communities, and imagine some facets of the world they want to help create. |
