Youth Radio - Topic: San Francisco

John O'Connel High School Unveils Barn-Sized Woodshop

squevedo — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:14:58 -0600

In the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District John O’Connell High School is celebrating the premier of its new solar-powered “woodshop,” According to an article by Jill Tuckler in the San Francisco Chronicle. The barn sized space is equipped with power tools and according to David Goldin, the District Chief Facilities Officer, the space is big enough that students could wheel in a small airplane. The new building is impressive compared to the small classroom where carpentry classes were held before, a room that could fit roughly 15 students at a time. In addition to carpentry the school hopes to see robotics and aeronautics classes eventually taught there.

The introduction of the new space also ushers in a new curriculum where vocational and technical training are combined with college-prep, providing hands-on experience with the academics necessary to fulfill UC standards. Once frowned-upon, vocational training is now being seen as a viable means of giving student’s trade-skills necessary for career paths and the integration of academics with this training means students will be prepared for college as well.

What Does Occupy Movement Mean For Cal Business Students?

rgee — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:22:43 -0600

Robyn Gee, Turnstyle News

What is it like being a professor of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business when the Occupy movement takes the campus by storm?

For one thing, it makes for some great teachable moments.

Professor Kevin Sweeney, former executive of Patagonia, began talking about the Occupy movement with his class on Oct. 5, when protesters began camping out in San Francisco. But recently, they’ve had to look no further than the school's own backyard, with Occupy Cal protesters making Sproul Plaza their home base.

From Sweeney’s perspective, businesses and corporations should not be surprised at all by the Occupy movement if they are practicing corporate social responsibility. According to him, businesses should use NGOs and activists to read the tides of change. Sweeney likes to use a surfing analogy to prove his point.

“When you surf, you reach a point in the wave where you either ride that wave or you just get hammered by it... You try to find the people there who know the break really well... and they can say, ‘That bump out there, that’s a big hairy wave, we’ll get trapped by that one.’...You want to find NGO activists who can look out on the horizon and see which of those bumps are really going to be big waves... When you do that, you’re not surprised by Occupy Wall Street. This is a wave you can’t ignore,” said Sweeney.

And it has been hard to ignore the action on the UC Berkeley campus. Two weeks ago, protesters were met by UC police in riot gear. Several protesters were jabbed with batons as they attempted to block police from taking down tents that were erected on Sproul Plaza.

Days later, Occupy Cal held a campus-wide strike. Many professors canceled class, and Professor Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, gave a lecture to thousands of students on the steps of Sproul Hall about the free speech movement.

On that same day, an undergraduate student was allegedly brandishing a gun in the Haas Business School, and was shot and killed by campus police officers, making some business school students wonder if they were being targeted.

There is no proven connection between Occupy Cal and the shooting, according to the Daily Cal. But according to Sweeney, his students made their own connections. One of his students shared with the class that she had heard business school students criticized for not being active or visible in the protests. “She found that upsetting, it bothered her... and then she had to be evacuated from a classroom because there had been a shooting, and she thought, ‘My god, has it come to this?’” said Sweeney. He said she went to the Occupy Cal General Assembly that night and was impressed, and found that she identified with some of the movement’s ideals.

This student made a lasting impression on Sweeney’s entire class, as she called for her fellow business students to check out the protests. Delanie Ricketts, an undergraduate in Sweeney’s class said, “Actually it kind of halted the conversation. It was something that no one really could debate...Everyone supports higher education when you’re at Cal. All students want to make sure that not more classes are being cut.” Occupy Cal, like other efforts in the growing "Occupy Colleges" network, is leveraging the message of the skyrocketing cost of higher education to narrow their demands.

But admittedly, the business school is in somewhat of a bubble. Ricketts said, “Haas is perceived as this outside community because it’s one of those majors that you have to be accepted into. You can’t just declare... Just business itself is something you don’t think about when you think of liberal, hippie Berkeley.”

Jesse Bussell, an undergraduate business major also in Sweeney’s class, said, “We are a fairly small major. We only have about a couple hundred students, and all of our classes are [at Haas], so we are physically separated from the rest of the school,” he said. He says that separation sometimes creates a lack of connection with what's happening in the world, including the Occupy movement. He says his peers are mostly looking to go into what he calls the "ABC's" -- accounting, banking, and consulting, and many spent the fall immersed in their search for internships or jobs.

He's become more socially aware over the past few years, but admits that money is important to him because he grew up in a "fairly poor family." He said, "The main reason I’m here is to have a better job, and be really successful…and make enough money that I can be really secure."

Bussell has had discussions with friends about whether it makes sense for the Occupy protests to be happening at Cal. "We didn’t want things to be out of control or unnecessary so that it interrupts studying," said Bussell, especially since finals are coming up in a few weeks. They've also debated whether the protests on campus can embody the same struggle as the protests on Wall Street and in downtown Oakland because "there are just large amounts of social inequality in these places."

Ricketts sees it differently. She finds students, even business students, more engaged because protesters are widening the message. “I saw many stickers on backpacks in my business class, ‘Help Defend Public Education.’ I think that’s something that they can identify with in the movement, even if it’s not related to the concerns about big business.”

Sweeney agrees. “If I look at the business school, I think our students are actually there. I think our faculty isn’t... It’s almost like (the Occupy movement is) surprising to the business faculty as opposed to the business students.”

Sweeney says he's seen a shift in his students' mentality over the years. “The students today are utterly different from students I had 10 years ago... They have a more subtle and sophisticated understanding of what the pressures are facing businesses... There’s a lot less cliche, a lot less labeling of corporations... They’re really cynical about companies that say they’re doing green stuff, and they really want proof -- and they know what proof looks like,” said Sweeney.

Ricketts is a good example of the changing profile of students taking business classes. She sees the Occupy movement as a job opportunity for her -- she can see herself consulting with large businesses helping them become more socially responsible. She sees business as part of the solution, not the problem. “Business has a ton of capital, a ton of power, and to be able to link that with these issues is something that’s exciting and interesting and can be really helpful.”

Recent College Grad Dons “Hire Me” Sandwich Board

rgee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:24:47 -0600

Sayre Quevedo, Turnstyle News

Adobe Flash Player is not installed. Please download and install it to listen to audio.

(download mp3)

Alexander Monsanto has achieved a lot of firsts. He’s a first generation American, the first in his family to graduate high school, and the first to get a college degree. All eyes are on him to succeed, but it’s been ten months since he got his accounting degree from Florida Atlantic University, and still no job.

“There are times where I would question what I was doing," said Monsanto. "I studied accounting for four years. If it’s going to be this difficult to get a job, is this really the field I want to be in?”

The jobless rate in the San Francisco Bay Area is above the national average, and unemployment is especially high for recent college grads. Month after month, Alexander Monsanto emailed resumes and wrote cover letters with little success. One morning he says he responded to every Craigslist ad in the San Francisco Bay Area that mentioned accounting, and didn’t receive a single response.

“It turns into this viscous cycle where it’s not helping to stay home to look for a job. You kind of have to just get out of the house and go and network and put yourself out there. I needed to find something different,” said Monsanto. And that is exactly what he did.

The lanky 25 year-old is a regular commuter on a 7:45 AM bus from Berkeley to San Francisco, but unlike most on the bus, Monsanto is hunting for a job instead of heading to one. When he arrives in San Francisco, Monsanto pulls two straps over his shoulders and begins walking the streets of the financial district wearing a sandwich board with the words "Hire Me" spelled out on the front with big black sticky letters. The sign beats against his chest with every step.

It’s a moment that he says fills him with embarrassment every time, but the need for a job eclipses any insecurities. “Whatever it takes, that's what I keep telling myself,” said Monsanto. “I mean a lot of people probably think I’m crazy but I’m not.”

There’s no arguing with his results. Monsanto estimates that he gets three to four interviews per week using his sandwich board, almost double his tally when searching Craigslist. And even if he’s not necessarily getting jobs, he sure is getting attention.

Kim Tobias did a double take as Monsanto walked past one recent morning. "I think it’s a little wacky, but I think it would work," said Tobias about Monsanto's sandwich board. "Shows me that he’s really interested in finding a job, he’s got initiative. That’s even better than LinkedIn.” Tobias, a corporate recruiter, asked for a resume before running off to a meeting.

A few blocks later Janet Myers calls out, "Hey you in the sandwich board." The University of California employee has a tip about accounting positions. But before she can finish giving Monsanto the information, she's interrupted by Eric Shroeder, a Senior VP at insurance giant Aeon, who snaps a picture with his phone, promising to post it on Linkedin.

One of Monsanto’s favorite stories is about the day he met his potentially perfect match. Representatives from the solar company SunRun were on the same street corner as him in downtown San Francisco, wearing T-shirts with the advertisement "We're Hiring.” Monsanto followed up with a resume and even landed an interview, but no job.

“I think what happened was that the opportunities we had listed weren’t really a fit for his background,” says Susan Wise, PR manager at SunRun. “But I think it’s a good example of how with seeking employees and employees seeking jobs, the concept of a mutual fit is tremendously important."

But with so many midcareer job seekers competing for the same positions, it’s hard for newcomers like Monsanto to be that "perfect fit" employers are looking for. So forced to face the reality of paying bills, Alexander Monsanto has put his dream of a full time accounting job on hold. Instead he’s willing to accept a part-time or even temporary job as an accountant. And in the meantime he keeps beating the streets in his sandwich board.

A version of this report aired on NPR’s Morning Edition.Photo gallery on Turnstyle News by Brett Myers/Youth Radio

You Can Lead A Kid To Water

rgee — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:00:36 -0500

By Sayre Quevedo, Turnstyle News

During the beginning of my freshman year, the carbonated citrus drink Orangina was big on campus. When I had extra change to spare, I would schlep across the school quad to the vending machines and grab one. Then one day, Orangina and sodas disappeared from vending machines at my San Francisco public high school in compliance with a state law banning the sale of soft drinks in high schools during the school day.

Now, a new California law aims to promote even healthier drinking habits by making water more accessible to students throughout the state. SB1413 requires schools to provide access to free fresh water in cafeterias by July 1^st, 2011.

Some schools have gone as far as installing full-blown hydration stations, allowing students to fill reusable bottles (preferably not plastic) with filtered water. Other schools are making due with water fountains. And then there are schools that plan to utilize an opt out provision that allows schools to claim financial hardship. Many critics call the provision an unnecessary loophole that will adversely affect students’ health.

My school, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco (SOTA), is going the route of relying on water fountains to comply with the new law. But rumors of lead-laden pipes and germ-covered spouts keep many of my fellow students from actually using the fountains. Instead, a lot of my friends tend to drink minimal amounts of water, taking sips from the fountain only when absolutely necessary or buying bottled water or energy drinks from the vending machines.

This month, I put water fountains across San Francisco Unified School District to the test with the help of Darleen Franklin, a researcher in San Francisco State University’s biology department. She examined the bacterial content of fountain water in three district schools. Our reporting also looks into the water supply at Oakland Unified School District. For more than six years, the East Bay Academy for Young Scientists at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science has enlisted students to test mineral content in samples from water fountains across that district, where they've reported lead levels above EPA standards.

Check out the slide show to find out the results of our water tests, and to learn more about the challenges of getting students and schools to make water a priority.

[ED NOTE: CLICK "SHOW INFO" TO SEE CAPTIONS]

More Info: Youth Radio Investigates is an NSF-supported science reporting series in which young journalists collect and analyze original data with professional scientists, and then tell unexpected stories about what they discover.

Youth Radio/Youth Media International is a youth-driven production company that delivers the best youth news, culture and undiscovered talent to a cross section of audiences. To read more youth news from around the globe and explore high quality audio and video features, visit www.youthradio.org.

Remembering Our Students - Missed Moments of Opportunity

rgee — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:07:16 -0500

By Robyn Gee, Turnstyle News

When I heard the news that my former student Andy had been shot, gunshots echoed in my ears. How could he be dead? Andy - who always wore his uniform, even when it had a week’s worth of stains on it. Andy - who would wolf down a whole Subway sandwich at 9am. Andy - who could make everyone laugh.

He was in my 8th grade English class at a middle school in San Francisco. He was only a little older -- 16 -- when he died. I’m not teaching anymore, but I still feel responsible for all of the students who came through my classroom. After Andy’s death, my friends from the school immediately planned Skype dates, phone conversations, and get-togethers to talk. “Who could have seen this coming?” we asked each other.

That was the easiest and hardest question to answer - because it felt like WE could have, should have, seen it. I had 9000 minutes over the course of the year to influence Andy’s life and future. Did I miss a teachable moment??

My mind flashes back to a moment when we were reading a play in class. In groups, we played a version of group charades. The students silently acted out scenes, while the rest of the class guessed what the scene was. The first group took their places, one person lying on the ground, one person standing over her, and three people were whispering. The class was stumped. And then the group revealed it was the scene of a shooting. The class burst into laughter.

It’s not so funny anymore. Guns didn't scare them, and now their classmate is dead.

Teachers have the opportunity to change students’ lives - but we are blinded by the culture in education that exists today. Events like Andy’s brutal death are reminders of the real work that has to be done in the classroom. Andy’s last name started with a Z; he was the last student I called to walk across the stage, to claim his diploma and continue onto high school.

Now I picture all the students on my attendance sheet from Andy’s year, and imagine reading each name aloud, from A to Z. I think about one girl who had lost her mom and barely scraped by in English class. Was she getting the emotional help she needed? Or was she getting into trouble? Or the quietest boy in class with an imagination that could astound you - was he getting encouragement? Or bullied?

But who has time to focus on these issues nowadays, when schools will be shut down if test scores don’t go up? Forget team-building, we need to do test review. Forget illustrating your personal narratives, we need to edit your prepositional phrases. Yes -- reading and writing scores need to go up.

But students also need to live beyond their 16th birthdays.

While Andy didn’t always come on time, or do his homework, he could make the whole class erupt in giggles. Sometimes he would laugh so hard that the energy would drain from his body, and he’d be left sitting at the desk while the others went to the next class. “Don’t be late!” I’d say, scooting him out the door. I was looking out for him. But I failed to make sure that others did the same.

How Young Is Too Young For Botox?

denise — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:11:47 -0500

Part of being a child is playing, dancing, going to the park, and enjoying the beauty of being a child. But there are certain parents with different parenting plans for their kids. Good Morning America sat down with a San Francisco pageant mom who injects her 8-year-old daughter with Botox. According to the mom, injecting kids with Botox is nothing out of the ordinary in the pageant world and she's only one of the many parents injecting their kids.

The mom claims that pageant competions are extremely competitive and by injecting her 8-year-old daughter with Botox is part of the winning process.

Belva Davis: Black, Female, and Breaking News for 40 Years

rgee — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:45:35 -0500

Belva Davis has true grit. Maybe you’ve never heard of her, but as she puts it - there were people dying in the south for her right to make it as the first black, female journalist in the West. There was no room for failure.

“Being beaten, being jailed - all of that had preceded my opportunity to do this work. I couldn’t let any possibility of not using all that I had to succeed - interfere with the journey to make it to the point of acceptance in the business,” said Davis.

Davis just released her memoir, “Never in My Wildest Dreams,” where you can find her stories about major moments in history - like covering the AIDS epidemic when the topic was still taboo. She was the first to interview an AIDS patient on live TV.

“The problem was - nobody knew how you contracted AIDS back then. People thought that if you were in the room with someone or they touched something that you could get AIDS. When my interviewee arrived, the technicians refused to mic that person - they didn’t want to be close to them. The woman medical reporter, a woman producer and me - we just took over. The nurse mic-ed him, we did the interview, the story went on,” said Davis. “My job was to humanize him as an individual... He would say, ‘My name is Bobby and I have AIDS, but I’m still a human being.’”

Although the spread of AIDS was a huge news story in San Francisco, stations all over town refused to interact with AIDS patients except for Davis and her team.

Not all of Davis’ stories in the memoir are about bravery. She never had formal training or a college education, so she had to pick up skills along the way. As a young, black, female reporter, there were definitely moments when she was shaking in her boots, like when she interviewed Frank Sinatra at the height of his popularity when the media was totally segregated.

“He got to select who he wanted to talk to, and looking out at the sea of people he chose me... I went in, I felt insecure, I was nervous, I was shaking, I was on the verge of tears. He asked me, ‘What’s the matter?’ And I said, ‘I’m nervous Mr. Sinatra.’ And he took this long draw on his cigarette and blew smoke out and legs crossed he said, ‘Don’t ever apologize for being nervous. The first day I walk out on the stage and I’m not nervous, is the day I quit.’ That was a moment that carried me through,” she said.

Before television, Davis worked in black radio. Like many other women, she worked in a clerical position, but she bargained for her own radio show in exchange. Even with her own show, she knew she was still on the bottom rung. She knew she could lose her job with any missteps -- including one ill fated encounter with soul legend James Brown that she laughs about now.

“I always ended up working late. One night I’m there, talking to a friend, I said - ‘God, I gotta get out of here, that little old ugly James Brown is due in here any moment and I don’t want to be here when he gets here.’ There was silence for a moment and then I heard, ‘Ahem.’ I looked up and there indeed was little old James Brown. I started to cry, I knew my career was over...I think I must have looked so pitiful sitting there, the tears running down my face, thinking about my children - and he said to me “Honey, you don’t really think I’m ugly, do you?”

Throughout Davis’ career she’s been behind the typewriter, behind the microphone, and behind the camera. But she was also out in front during the civil rights movement. During the 60’s, a clause in the Miss America beauty pageant constitution sated that you had to be of the white race to participate. Davis started a black beauty pageant as a civil rights statement.

“We were holding this press conference and the photographer said ‘This is a great idea, a great cause - but I don’t know if it’s gonna make it... I tell ya what - if one of the girls will allow themselves to be thrown in the swimming pool - so that the girl comes out dripping wet - we may be able to get that into the paper’ - and it did, it made the Examiner,” said Davis.

A lot has changed since Davis was on the streets - covering the anti-war protests at UC Berkeley, or the birth of the Black panther movement. Today she hosts a news round-table program on KQED called, “This Week in Northern California,” where she discusses current events with local Bay Area reporters. She said the thing that has changed the most about journalism is the partisan divide.

“I can’t imagine a world where there’s a station you go to because of its political views… I had always preached in my early years that democracy depended upon us knowing something about each other and eventually recognizing each other as human beings with the same needs. If we couldn’t agree on that - we’re not fulfilling the dream of what America is,” she said.

That divided world is what today’s generation of journalists is coming into -- spin journalism sells. Davis says it hurts democracy. But she’s not completely old school. She regularly updates her Facebook and Twitter accounts. She’s come a long way for someone who grew up during the Great Depression. Her memoir purposely doesn’t ignore the barriers along the way -- hoping it will motivate the young people who will take her place in the industry.

Snapshots Of Being Young And Homeless

rgee — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:07:24 -0500

This story was originally featured on Turnstyle News and aired on 4/14/11, KALW San Francisco.

By Robyn Gee

Adobe Flash Player is not installed. Please download and install it to listen to audio.

(download mp3)

Intro:

A new photo book called Through Our Eyes chronicles the lives of homeless youth documented by youth themselves. The book was the brainchild of Mary Howe and Khristine Jones at the Homeless Youth Alliance in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

Script:
Two years ago, Mary Howe and Khristine Jones had an idea. They wanted to see what would happen if they gave out disposable cameras to homeless youth, paying $5 for each returned camera. Over the course of two years, they gave out about 200 cameras, and got nearly 160 back. Jones says it was overwhelming.

Jones: So at the end, me and Mary had thousands of pictures all over her house, on top of the tv, underneath the table. Everywhere.

The photo project took over the lives of the two friends who had both been homeless themselves. Howe and Jones had noticed the same stock footage of homeless youth being used over and over again by mainstream media, and they wanted to find a way to get their photos into the mainstream too. With so much material, it eventually made sense to make the project into a book called Through Our Eyes. After the photos were developed, Howe and Jones asked young people to come back and write captions on their pictures. They spent one long night laying out the photos for the book.

Howe: Uhh I don’t know if fun... would fun be the word for that?
I kept Khristine up until 4 in the morning.... which I’m very astute because I have insomnia, but she was not feeling that.
Jones: I was not feeling that - I go to sleep real early, and get up real early.
Howe: We had a little slumber party at my house.
Jones: And then Mary in her insomnia finished it...
Howe: I did the layout and all that, but we did the physical layout in that one night.
A lot of coffee, a lot of insanity...

The layout process included organizing the photos into sections that capture themes in homeless life. The sections are both predictable, and surprising -- with titles such as "big sticks", "drugs and drinking", and "trains and traveling." They capture real life…even the parts that aren’t always pretty says Howe.

Howe: I think the Blood and Wounds section may get to some people, but you know that’s an aspect of people’s lives when you’re living outside and you’re under - you’re living in conditions that are not the best - and you don’t have access to running water and things like that on a daily basis... so blood and wounds occur.

Howe left home at 14, and found herself in and out of jail and rehab until she was 18. Now, she is the director of the Homeless Youth Alliance. Jones spent time in methadone clinics and panhandling before becoming an outreach counselor at the center.

On a recent afternoon, there’s an art group about to start - the same art group where the photography project originated.

In a back office beforehand, Jones and Howe are scrolling through all the pictures that came from many people who were part of this same art group -- some who are still participating, and others who have moved on. As they scroll, they start connecting with the images, like the shot of a peaceful sunrise city view that Howe really likes.

Howe: The kids really do see the beauty in things, more than average people. Because they live outdoors... the views in the book are really amazing to me - like that shot, of San Francisco, they see the city at all these moments when most people are asleep in there houses, and we’ll never be able to appreciate that moment. Where they’re awake, or being woken up by the police on a daily basis, they get to capture these moments for us on camera.

Being woken up by the police is more common for homeless youth on the streets of San Francisco these days. The recent Sit / Lie ordinance passed by voters prohibits anyone from sitting or lying down on the sidewalk between 7am and 11pm. Howe and Jones hope that the book will ease some of that tension between homeless youth, the surrounding community, and law enforcement.

They plan to use the proceeds from the book to do another round of photos...this time with digital cameras.

Through Our Eyes is being released this week.

FAIR Education Act Hopes To Put LGBT In Textbooks

rgee — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:53:12 -0500

The education policy committee in the California State Senate will hear testimony today for and against the FAIR Education Act, introduced by State Senator Mark Leno. This act would, “prohibit discriminatory education and ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are fairly and accurately included in instructional materials,” according the the press release from the GSA Network and Equality California, the two sponsors of the bill.

Basically, LGBT people and historic events in the LGBT movement would legally have to show up in school textbooks. In what capacity? Leno hopes that the LGBT struggle will show up in textbooks as a civil rights movement, highlighting important events, like when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from their list of mental illnesses in 1972. "Imagine how different the interaction among students would be if, in an age-appropriate fashion - this issue of homosexuality and this issue of the LGBT community is all a part of a civil rights movement. Not unlike other civil rights movements,” said Leno.

"I think we’ve all been horrified by this ongoing phenomenon, if not crisis, of bullying going on within our schools, leading to tragic suicides among our LGBT youth in the past couple of years,” said Leno. “And it seems to me that as human beings, it’s not uncommon that we fear and dislike that which is uncommon or unknown to us.”

Leno contends that dealing with this fear of the unknown could help eliminate peer violence in schools. “If we were to better educate our students so that there would be more familiarity with those who are different from the societal norm, children would grow up with a more understanding and accepting attitude, and there would be more respect from students on school campuses,” he said.

According to a GSA Fact Sheet, the existing law requires that men, women, black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Island people, and other ethnic groups to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, be equally represented in curriculum. The fact sheet reads additionally, "The current law prohibits instruction or school-sponsored activities that reflect adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, ability, national origin, or ancestry."

The California Teachers’ Association is in support of the bill, and Leno says he is hopeful that it will pass out of committee tomorrow and then head to the Senate floor. If Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill at the end of the summer, it will go into effect January 1, 2012.

2010 Brower Youth Awards: De'Anthony Jones in San Francisco

rgee — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:51:26 -0500

As the awards ceremony approaches, Youth Radio is profiling each of the six 2010 Brower Youth Award winners. The Brower Youth Awards go to six outstanding environmental activists between the ages of 13 and 22. The awards ceremony takes place in October in San Francisco.

De’Anthony Jones, 18, San Francisco, CA
Fostering Service Learning

Through the group Environmental Service Learning Initiative (ESLI), an organization that works in seven public high schools in San Francisco, De’Anthony has worked to connect social justice and global climate change at the forefront of education. De’Anthony’s engages youth of color in the environmental movement through integrating community learning, environmental service, teacher-student partnerships, collaboration with community-based organizations, and hands-on learning. He is helping to create a new youth culture that takes environmental stewardship as a given.

In the fall of 2008, during my first year at Mission High School in San Francisco, as a junior, I met some people who became my mentors, including Jay Pugao and Dave Room. I had just finished a summer in the CORO Exploring Leadership Program in SF, where I learned about the energy crisis. That’s when my passion was sparked. Jay Pugao started the ESLI program at Mission High, and I got involved then.

I didn’t have a passion for the environment at first, but when I started learningg about what it meant for me, for my generation, and for my future, I changed my mind.
I was appointed to the citywide board of ESLI and I met the people at Global Exchange. They mentored me as well. Everyone was on my level. They understood how to talk to me. I’d also really like to thank all my Youth Advisory Board members.

While I was in the ESLI program, we planned 10 events to educate youth about environmental justice.
We planned the annual EcoFest in San Francisco, which turned out to be the largest planned youth-led environmental justice event in SF.

We also brought together teachers from all the ESLI schools to discuss integrating environmental justice into their curriculum.

We are organizing the Green Festival which will take place in November in SF. Global exchange and Great America are working together on this project.

At Mission High, we organized a Dance for the Earth. In this event, we wanted to paint the Earth as a woman, because in society we are trained to respect our women, and you need to respect Mother Earth. We had student performances of all kinds: spoken word, music, and dance.

We also organized EcoWeek at Mission High. This was a week when students learned about global warming. We brought in many speakers, including the co-founder of Global Exchange and Paul Freedman, the founder of Rock the Bikes, a company that makes electric bikes.

We also organized a Green Prom. It was the only Green Prom in SF. It was powered by electric bikes! People in their prom dresses took turns pedaling the bikes - it was great. We held the event in the Presidio National Park. We used compostable plates and we recycled everything.

I’m going to Sacramento State University, getting a double major in government and sociology. My first passion was violence prevention, and being on the youth commission for two years made me want to study government. Now, I’m passionate about environmental justice as well.

I’m very excited to receive a Brower Award, and yet humbled. This is just the beginning for me. It’s an affirmation of work done, but a call for more work. It doesn’t mean I stop here. I have to push harder. I think it’s especially important to educate youth of color in the issues of environmental justice. They don’t know about this issue, and yet we see the effects of pollution in our communities the most.