Project Based Collaboration with BUSTED! PA

For ten weeks from December 2008 to March 2009 the UCCP worked with three youth from BUSTED! PA to develop media literacy and production skills. In the process, the youth in the program planned, shot and edited a short Anti-Smoking PSA titled "Stop and Think" that educates youth about the causes and effects of smoking.

The youth participants from the BUSTED! program used the knowledge and skills they developed through the collaboration to organize a workshop on media production for the BUSTED! Media Conference, which took place on May 9th at Temple University. The UCCP also facilitated a workshop on "Youth, Media and Identity" at the same conference, which focused on how media misrepresents young people and what impact it has in society.

Check out this video interview by Aaron Kennedy, a UCCP Leaders Corps member that worked on the BUSTED! project, for an inside look at the collaboration:

Special thanks to Aunnalea Grove from BUSTED! for supporting the partnership. For more info on how to bring a UCCP project based collaboration to your organization, contact Catalina Gonzalez at catalina.gonzalez@temple.edu.

Spring 2009 VOICES Final Showcase

On Saturday, May 9, 2009 the Temple Youth VOICES Project held its FINAL SHOWCASE for 2008-2009! UCCP staff, Leaders Corps members, participants, parents and friends gathered in Temple University’s Student Center to celebrate the hard work done this year by our youth.

The powerful youth-driven social change campaigns included topics such as:

• Teen Neglect
• Youth Violence Reduction
• Youth Representation in the Media
• Youth Voices in the 2009 Budget Process
• Homelessness
• Prejudice

We also highlighted the great work being done at the Penrose Recreation Center by youth from the surrounding community as well as our monthly Teen Health Cafés facilitated by THE NET.

Our participants committed 2 afternoons per week for 20 weeks and invested almost 100 hours into making a difference in their communities!

Five Youth Receive Experiment in International Living Scholarships

clockwise from left: EIL scholarship winners receive recognition at the VOICES Final event; Fred Shields holds up a China-themed cake made for him by a UCCP intern Jordan; Temple student Ava Burns hosts an EIL fundraising raffle at the Final Showcase.

The UCCP is proud to announce this year's Experiment in International Living Scholarship Winners:

• Fred Shields (China)
• Alexis Duprey (Japan)
• Alexa Benjamin (France)
• Isaiah Smith (Italy)
• Ameera Young (Belize)

These outstanding 10th and 11th grader students were chosen based on the quality of their application and interview, as well as their track record of commitment to community engagement. Each will have an opportunity to spend between four and six weeks in a foreign country over the summer.

This year the scholarships ranged in value from $5,300 to $6,900. The UCCP is required to contribute $500 per scholarship. We would like to thank the following friends and partners for helping us raise this money:

• Friends of Students Run Philly Style who raised $500 for Isaiah Smith (who, in addition to participating in VOICES, is in training for his 4th marathon!).
• The National Pan-Hellenic Council for donating $1,000 in support of Ameera Young and Alexa Benjamin.
• Marianna Bracetti Academy Charter High School for contributing $500 for Alexis Duprey.
• UCCP Intern Ava Burns and EIL Alumni from the Temple Youth VOICES Project for sponsoring a raffle to support Fred Shields.

Be sure to check back in late August to see pictures from everyone's trips!

P.O.W.E.R. Breakfast for School Partners

above: Ashley Stanley-Hopson, a P.O.W.E.R. Intern from Parkway Northwest shares her experience in the Internship with principals, teachers and community leaders.

On Thursday, May 7^th UCCP hosted the P.O.W.E.R. Internship Breakfast for eight of its current and future high school partners including Mariana Bracetti Academy, West Philly High, Parkway Northwest, Science Leadership Academy, Delaware Valley Charter High School, George Washington Carver, Roxborough High School, YouthBuild Charter and representatives from the Kid Zone Network. At the meeting, the guests had a chance to learn the nuts and bolts of what interns gain at the P.O.W.E.R. Internship, from leadership and media skills to exposure to social movements in Philadelphia. They also shared stories about the development they've seen in the current P.O.W.E.R. interns and heard a live testimonial from Ashley Stanley-Hopson, a senior at Parkway Northwest, who updated everyone about her P.O.W.E.R. internship project addressing Homeless Youth.

Part of the goal for the meeting was to inform the guests about the many opportunities UCCP has to offer to its partner schools, youth organizations and youth and students involved in them, including the credit-bearing POWER Internship for juniors and seniors, the VOICES after-school for youth 14-21, study abroad opportunities through the Experiment in International Living, senior project assistance, and a collection of workshops for youth practitioners, decision makers and young people themselves that provide tools and strategies to develop authentic youth leaders.

It was a privilege to sit at the table with so many incredible schools and organizations, and plant several seeds for powerful future collaborations. This meeting was just the beginning of all the great ideas that come about when dedicated educators (in the classroom and out) get together.

Click here to learn more about the P.O.W.E.R. Internship. To become a school or organizational partner or get updated about similar events in the future, contact Alie Huxta at alisonhuxta@yahoo.com.

Dwight Evans Civic Leadership Summit 2009

Since 2006, the UCCP has collaborated with Pennsylvania State Representative Dwight Evans’ Office to support their annual Civic Leadership Summit (DECLS). This year’s DECLS included teams from Martin Luther King, Parkway Northwest High Schools and Kidz Zone. The teams, composed of high school juniors and seniors with guidance and support from Temple students acting as collegiate advisers, developed public policy initiatives aimed at solving problems that affect their communities and schools. This year’s summit, held May 1st and 2nd at the Constitution Center, showcased solutions to problems like the effectiveness of standardized testing, cafeteria services, health and safety and the state of recreation centers. The Parkway Northwest HS team, which argued for the need for a cafeteria at their school won first place, receiving $1000 to implement the project. The team was supported by Michael Honeycutt, a UCCP intern.

Students Produce Media for Senior Projects at UCCP

Clockwise from left: seniors Khalia Brooks, Lori Burton, Malcolm Walton, Gregory Coney and Daveer Fincher.

Inspired by last year's success of two media-powered senior projects created with the support of UCCP, this year we partnered with Pennsylvania Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) to provide a series of workshops for high school seniors focusing their projects on media, music or culture. As part of the series, from March 4 to April 15th, UCCP worked with 5 students from Parkway Northwest, South Philly, Parkway West and Simon Gratz High Schools whose senior project topics ranged from Hip-Hop to reality TV to media's influence on anorexia.

The students came to Temple University once a week for 6 weeks and learned concepts of media literacy and representation, talked about the challenges of making a documentary with Madea Gboyah and Ted Lacey - last year's UCCP Senior Project stars (now freshmen at Temple), developed skills in video production, went to a documentary screening at University of Pennsylvania, and collectively planned, shot and edited their own short film called "Making of a Video Vixen" that ties together the media critiques of everyone in the group.

In addition to fulfilling the required 15 hours of senior project fieldwork, all of the participants said that the UCCP workshops were "really helpful and relevant" to their topics, and each student was able to take away something from the experience, whether "how to convert YouTube videos" or how to view advertisements and movies with a more critical eye. The workshops were facilitated by Natalia Smirnov, UCCP's Media Productions and Communications Coordinator with support of Fritz Lubin, UCCP Leaders Corps member.

For more information, contact Natalia Smirnov at nsmirnov@temple.edu.