Cesar Chavez, one of the most influential and important labor organizers in U.S. history, once said, “The end of all education should surely be service to others.” As part of Chicago’s Cesar Chavez Service Learning Month, students from several Chicago high schools conducted extensive interviews with immigrants preparing for their citizenship exams. “We asked them questions of when they came here, how were their lives before, the work they used to do before, over there, and once they arrived here, and the difference between their lives in the place where they came from, which was Mexico, and now their lives here,” says Maydel Sanchez, 18, a senior at Kelly High School in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood. Click here for more.
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Crisis and Hope: WKCD Speech Contest 2009 |
| “My dream is that this recession will remind us what truly matters most,” writes Kelly McDonald, 13, from Manchester, New Hampshire. This spring we invited students across the country, age 12 to 19, to send us a graduation speech they would like to give on the topic “Crisis and hope in these trying times.” We received over 150 entries. Read the winning essays from middle and high school students. | |
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History You Can Touch |
| “I’ll be talking about courage and Common Sense with Thomas Paine,” begins Carriola Chambers, 16, as she steels her nerves. It’s presentation day at Facing History School (FHS) in mid-Manhattan and students like Carriola are demonstrating to small panels of teachers and peers how they have advanced their “habits of learning” over the quarter. There’s a passion for self-discovery through history at FHS that you won’t find at any other school. | |
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The Clock Is Ticking: Youth and Environmental Activism |
| Young people have a unique relationship with the environment: They are often the first affected when something goes wrong, yet the least represented when decisions are made. They, more than any other generation, have been raised to feel a responsibility toward the environment. Read this new collection from the youth-led news bureau, Y-Press—part of an ongoing series about youth activism. |  |
Forget H&R Block: Louisiana Students Handle Taxes for Community |
| Tax time. Those two little words evoke stress and anxiety for most adults. But for Kristen Smith, a 15-year-old tenth grader at East Iberville High School in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, the months before—and after—April 15 are exciting. “I wouldn’t have changed the experience for anything,” she says. Smith, with seven of her classmates, signed up to become a volunteer income tax assistant. | |
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A New Generation of Journalists |
| “As I stuffed my bag with mini cassette tapes and a digital recorder, the nightly news anchors proclaimed that things were not looking too good for American journalism,” writes Y-Press reporter Jordan Denari. “Public demand for written news was decreasing, daily newspaper subscriptions were down, and analysts predicted that the newspaper industry might disappear. It was under these circumstances that I traveled to Washington, D.C. for a journalism conference for high school seniors.” | |
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Friday Harbor Embraces the Experience Food Project |
| Cheese ravioli with homemade marinara sauce; oven-roasted lemon rosemary chicken breast and vegetable medley; chili with local ground beef and cornbread. These are just a few of the homemade lunch entrees on the menu at Friday Harbor High School. For the past year, the innovative Experience Food Project has not only changed the way students eat at this high school nestled in the San Juan Islands in Washington, but also transformed the curriculum. | |
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Kuumba Lynx Offers Hip Hop Education for Chicago Youth |
| “It completely changes the way you go about thinking of regular school,” says 15-year-old Lala Bolander. “When your teacher is asking you questions, you try to think deeper. You can tell the difference between kids that go to Kuumba Lynx and kids that don’t.” For 12 years, Kuumba Lynx has taught thousands of Chicago youth the ins and outs of hip hop, organized open mic nights and “dance downs,” and providing teaching artists to the city’s schools. |
