Over the last few weeks I have been working with a residential day school for girls who have experienced trauma, teaching them about their First Amendment rights. The course is set up as a 10 week intensive to inform the students about their freedoms, as well as career and educational opportunities in journalism. In order… Continue reading The Freedom to Use Your Voice
While getting legislation in during the 2018 legislative year didn’t happen, there are supporters in Florida who are looking forward to bringing it to next year’s legislative session. Part of that hope comes from the fact that there are many other states, like New York and New Jersey, who have introduced New Voices legislation. I’m… Continue reading Bringing New Voices to Florida
The past couple months have been hectic, but we are finally getting in the thick of it. This year for my Active Voice project I’m working with 9th grade girls at Foshay High School to create a mini podcast series. I’m helping them to write their podcasts, record them, and edit everything together. We spent… Continue reading Amplifying Teen Voices on Education and Tech
As an Active Voice fellow, I was given the opportunity to connect with local high school students in Lubbock, Texas. For my project, I wanted to give these students an outlet to express themselves freely where they wouldn’t have to face the fear of being censored. To me, the perfect outlet to achieve this goal… Continue reading Free Expression as Art in Lubbock, Texas
“Let’s get the TV and the radio to play our tune again. It’s about time we got some airplay of our version of events.” —Emeli Sandé, “Read All About It Part III” I played this song for the audio/visual students at my former high school today, and the resounding response was they related very much to its message. Read… Continue reading Speaking Up in the City of Champions
Melissa Gomez is an 2017-18 Active Voice fellow reporting from Tampa, Fla. When I think about the professional newsrooms I’ve been in, I realize I have been fortunate enough to be able to look up to strong female role models. It’s part of the reason I wanted to be a part of Active Voice. Getting… Continue reading 32 Photojournalists, Not One of them Female
Elise Takahama is a rising junior at Boston University and serves as the managing editor of The Daily Free Press, a campus paper. This summer, for eight short weeks, I had the opportunity to write for the Pasadena Star-News, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Whittier Daily Breeze. As an intern for this Southern… Continue reading Not Your Typical Summer Job
An extensive background check on Active Voice fellow Paula Pecorella will reveal that she was arrested at seventeen. This has led to some uncomfortable conversations with employers, she said, but she can explain. As a senior, Pecorella led an investigation on her school’s security procedure as the managing editor for Paw Prints, the West Islip… Continue reading Introducing Active Voice Fellow Paula Pecorella
When a group of Oakland High School boys created an Instagram account targeting her friends, Active Voice fellow Sabby Robinson took to the airwaves to talk about sexual harassment. At the time, Robinson was a graduating senior at Oakland High and intern at Youth Radio, a California Bay Area-based radio outlet for young people. On… Continue reading Introducing Active Voice Fellow Savannah Robinson
As editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, Naba Siddiq wanted her staff to cover issues beyond what was going on with sophomore parking and campus rallies. So did her staff. For the first time in years, her campus paper, La Ventana, had enough people to write opinion pieces. They had the means, the passion, but… Continue reading Introducing Active Voice Fellow Naba Siddiq