What kinds of skills and knowledge are young people acquiring through their involvement with the production of youth radio?

Response from Ayesha Walker, Online Project Associate. If you want to check out some of Walker’s work for Youth Radio, try “Bathing Ape”, Marketplace
and “From Blacksburg to Bay Area.”

I unconfidently discovered radio my sophomore year of high school at El Cerrito’s KECG station. I was determined to break through my introverted shell and find comfort behind
the microphone. Somehow in my senior year I was elected Director of Communications,
hosting my very own radio crew, playing my voice through every speaker in El Cerrito
high school. By the time my senior year came around, I fatefully stumbled across Youth
Radio. I studied all of the features and fell in love with web, photography and journalism.

As the new generation of technology users, today’s young people are trained here at
Youth Radio in exactly what we need and want: proficiency through technologically
advanced equipment in media production. Therefore we advance in the skills that already
belong to us.

We learn to magnify our personality with confidence, creatively generating authentic
work through the components that YR offers:

News and commentaries: young people write stories for local and national radio,
iTunes, and our own website

Music: young people learn to produce their own music through industry standard
computer software and also program music shows featuring a range of artists and styles
for terrestrial and web radio

Web: young people learn to produce and design youthradio.org

Video: young people learn to create videos for outlets ranging from PBS to
Current TV to YouTube

After learning what we want, we learn what to do with the skills we’ve acquired through the program. We either move up or move out. Young people evolve into an essential part of staff, guiding other young people in the right direction. Or we find work outside Youth Radio, sometimes even outside converged media, using the professional skills gained here.

Youth Radio has helped shape the minds and personalities of many young people around the Bay Area, making the road to success much more visible.

Throughout my time here at Youth Radio, I’ve worked on a mob of commentaries. But there’s one in particular I’m most proud of is called “Hood Sweet Hood.” It hasn’t aired on an outlet yet, but I’m proud of it because I feel I had the chance to clarify a few things that take place in the hood that most people outside of the ghetto wouldn’t understand.

At Youth Radio, I’ve learned to swallow my people-fearing ways and express myself. I’ve learned to write creatively to a broad audience. By helping to maintain and produce youthradio.org, I’ve learned to take professional quality photographs, to network, and most importantly, to have fun. I’ve learned to think more deeply about my actions, whether it’s buying from large corporations or just plain recycling. I’ve learned to speak properly on air. I’ve learned interviewing tactics–not from a book, even though I love books with all my mind, but from experience, which is the best teacher a student could ever have. Youth Radio has allowed me to sit in and help plan its future and my own.

And more on this question from Reina Gonzales, Youth Radio graduate and Associate
Producer. To sample Gonzales’s work, see “Military Deserters in Canada.”

I’ve been with Youth Radio since I was fifteen years old in a variety of roles. As a
student, I can say that the biggest impact Youth Radio had on me was that it gave me a
sense of direction. I learned what opportunities were out there for me and was then able
to decide what would bring me the most fulfillment.

As a peer teacher, I was surprised by how supportive and non- judgmental the students
were. In our weekly radio shows, I often saw the students struggle with writing or
on-air nerves, but in working together, they showed a sense of trust and mutual respect.
This was an experience completely opposite to the hostile environment I encountered in
high school.

As a youth reporter, I learned that writing ability on its own isn’t enough to produce
media that matters. I had to develop a more holistic approach to the stories I worked
on–thinking about all the possible ways I could tell them and always trying to consider
different points of view.

As a radio and video producer, I’ve seen students learn to adapt to the always-changing
media landscape by using new technologies and producing their stories across formats.
They also think about new ways to market themselves and their work using social
networks–all of which suggests they’re becoming just as good if not better than their
adult media professional counterparts.