Wilkinsburg’s Alive and Kicking Team strives for health, fun, intergenerational relationships — not to mention sponsorships and a better practice field.

By Jourdan Hicks

The Steel City Kickers Kickball League is not just any sports league. It’s a community of women who come together to bond, have fun and promote healthy habits. Founded as a social impact organization, the league aims to equip the next generation of Pittsburgh-area women through movement, cooperative economics and the enjoyment of a little competitive sport.

From June to August for the last six years, up to 14 teams with 19 players each compete in weekly games, playoffs, championships and skills competitions. It’s a space where women of all ages can safely come together, with emphasis on sisterhood and health. 

One team, in particular, has made significant contributions to both the league and its community: the Wilkinsburg Alive and Kicking Kickball Team. 

Yvette Harrison, a lifelong resident of Wilkinsburg, is the team manager. She first learned about the organization through a colleague at Allegheny County Children Youth and Family Services and became involved in 2017 when Esha Sheard, the league’s first president, encouraged her and her colleagues to join.

“So I started going to the games in like 2017 or so. Me always thinking about ways to make money, I was like, they need snacks here, you know? So I got my daughter, she was still in high school, and we got nachos and candy and pop. And we start selling stuff to them,” Harrison said. “We would go up here and do that. So like for two years, I guess I did that, you know, so hot dogs on the grill and stuff like that. And so then I started saying, I think I need to get a team together.”

Yvette explained how she recruited her girlfriends and sisters to join the kickball team even though none of them were in shape for it. They decided to embrace their age by naming the team “Old Out.” Despite having a few younger players, they were the oldest team in the league and took pride in it.

After coaching the team for two years, Yvette noticed a gender imbalance among the coaches, with most of them being men. In response, she took on a leadership role herself and became the team’s lead. She continued in the role for two seasons before stepping down in 2019. The upcoming 2023 season will mark her fourth active season as a member of the Wilkinsburg Alive and Kicking Kickball Team.

“I had got all my girlfriends that I grew up with, my sisters, ‘Come on, we’re going to do this team.’ And so, you know, we had this great vision, but like, none of us are in shape for this, right? And we were all old. We got stuff for being the oldest team and having the fastest runner. You know, we had a couple of younger people, but literally, like we were the oldest team in the league and it was nice.”

Yvette and her fellow teammates were motivated by the league’s mission to promote healthy habits, foster intergenerational relationships and make a positive impact in the community. They were particularly drawn to the league’s emphasis on older women mentoring and bonding with younger women.

Although Yvette has not played kickball since her first year on the team, she takes pride in the fact that, as team manager, she has helped create a family-centered experience where mothers and daughters can participate in the activity together.

“I go to practice sometimes, I go walk around with them, I’m like just the manager now, keeping them together. I’m very excited because like while we’re all from Wilkinsburg, now it’s our children, my daughter played for two years, she’s in college. All of our children who are from Wilkinsburg and it’s so nice because they always knew each other already and they’re, like, really gelling together. They’re the younger version of Wilkinsburg, I’m Ms. Vette to them, you know, it’s really nice. It’s coming together.” 

Yvette’s responsibilities as team manager include handling registration, uniforms, team-league insurance, financial aid and field observation. 

“Our mission is just, like, to provide positive sportsmanship, you know, and to encourage and embrace our youth.”

Listen to Yvette Harrison of the Wilkinsburg Alive and Kicking Kickball Team explain how community pride and competitive sport is driving positive change in Wilkinsburg and inspiring others to reinvest in their neighborhood.

Despite some younger players initially requesting a team name change, Yvette said she also took on the duty of conveying the history and significance of the original name to them. As a result, they have embraced the name with pride and are honored to continue the legacy of the team’s founding members.

“Like I said, it’s our children now, two of them played as their mothers played. Our name, you know, they, they asked to change the name. I was feeling some type of way. And then as I gave them the history of the name, they said, no, we’ll keep it, you know. Because Alive and Kicking, we were older, but we just thought we were still it.”

The team practices four days a week at Whitney Field, which is located near Kelly Elementary School, and competes on Sundays at Arsenal Field in Lawrenceville. Yvette or “Ms. Vette” as she is affectionately known, takes great pleasure in witnessing the intergenerational connections that are formed among the players.

“I was excited because, like, you know, children don’t get out and do activity things anymore. Like, move around. It felt good to see the excitement in my daughter and her friends’ eyes was nice.”

Yvette also takes great pleasure in witnessing the positive changes that her team members experience as they work toward becoming healthier versions of themselves. Seeing her teammates make progress and become more confident and self-assured brings her a great sense of joy and fulfillment.

“Well, we don’t know. We don’t have any health initiatives. But it’s amazing to watch people who are sometimes, when they first just get in shape, just, you know, look forward to the activity, you know. I remember when we first started, it was just like everybody’s like, ‘Oh, are you losing weight?’”

Yvette said she is beginning to see a similar kind of transformation happening in her community, due to the redevelopment and renewed interest in the area. This is happening in parallel with the positive changes that are taking place within the individuals on the team as they become involved with the kickball team and its mission of promoting healthy habits and positive relationships.

“I believe that it’s starting to thrive again. I just want to make sure that as it begins to thrive, that the residents that has been there forever don’t get pushed to the wayside,” Yvette said. “It’s in jeopardy a little bit, but I see it getting better.” 

Yvette also serves the youth of her community through her work at Deliverance Baptist Church’s “Next Generation” ministry, advocating for funding and planning activities for young people. With three degrees in social work, Yvette uses her knowledge to be a positive force for esteem and change. 

As the presence of the team grows, Yvette said she hopes to encourage the community and its residents to reinvest in the neighborhood, while her passion for providing resources and support comes from a sense of responsibility for decisions she made in her youth that impacted her hometown.

“I wasn’t the best. I wreaked havoc in Wilkinsburg for a very long time running around in a four- or five-block radius with my head chopped off. And so not being the best person to my kids or anybody else. Hooked on drugs. And so in that time, you know, I feel like I got so much to give back. So much, too, you know what I mean? So yeah, I’m just really passionate about the Wilkinsburg area, period. And so I have a lot to give back.”

Regarding the future of the team, sponsorships are a top priority. While there is a strong bond between the league and the Alive and Kicking Team, there have been competitive moments that have fueled the team’s ambitions for the upcoming season.

“Other teams has tried to take them (Alive and Kicking players) away because they’re so good. Like, ‘Why you wanna stay on that team? You only win about three games.’ And so they’re like, ‘No, we’re Alive and Kicking.’”

Despite not having won a championship yet, Yvette said she believes that this season’s team, sporting teal and silver, is the strongest one yet. The team’s current coach, Haywood El, shares the same sentiment and has set his goals for the season.

“To make the playoffs,” said El. “I will. I would say championship, but we’re not there yet. Faster. I got a lot of lively legs that can kick further in the outfield. We just got to work on the small intricacies in regards to working in runs as opposed to us like driving the ball to other players and getting out.”

Yvette characterizes him as a “health fanatic.”

“The coach, he’s just like he’s, I want to say a fanatic, but he’s into health and, he works them hard, he drills them and he’s, you know, asking everybody what they eat, bases it off dehydration and all that. You know, he’s, ‘I need you to bring cut up oranges to the game.’” 

Jokingly, El characterized Yvette as “very opinionated” and a “vocal leader.” 

Not only is he the team’s coach, he’s her supervisor at work.

“We have our days,” Yvette said. “We do come back from work, and I’m like, ‘Oh, we’re still holding that, you know?’” 

Yvette’s vision for the team goes beyond just kickball. She hopes that the team can serve as an inspiration for the entire Wilkinsburg community to take ownership of their physical environment. This includes playgrounds, sidewalks and any other space in the borough that has the potential to bring people together. By working together to improve their community, Yvette said she believes they can build a stronger and more connected neighborhood.

“Everybody lives in Wilkinsburg and it’s a pet peeve of mine. You know, people will drive down the street and just throw a whole McDonald’s bag out the [window], you know. Adults. 

“And it drives me crazy. So, as we’re getting noticed I’m trying to get them to invest in and into Wilkinsburg. One Saturday, we’re going to clean up the area and Wilkinsburg. I just want them to see us. I want to become visible to the Wilkinsburg community.” 

Yvette attended a recent borough council meeting because her team was using Whitney Field, which was not being maintained properly. She was frustrated because in her mind, the borough was receiving funding for the field but not taking care of it, and Yvette felt that it was their responsibility to take care of the field regardless.

Pamela Macklin, a Wilkinsburg Council member, shared this about the impact of Alive and Kicking team:  “I believe sports is critical for healthy, confident and team building youth and adults. Also promotes family involvement and community pride.”

Wilkinsburg Mayor Dontae Comans said, “It’s amazing to have a sports team think of the borough as a home and I look forward to seeing them have events in the community promoting teamwork and health. My family looks forward to attending their games.”

Yvette’s passion for kickball and her community shows how sports can bring people together and inspire positive change. With her sights set on securing sponsorships that align with her values, the future looks bright for Yvette and her Wilkinsburg Steel City Kickers.

Under the guidance of former team President Mylia Jackson, Steel City Kickers league has secured a partnership with Roxamore Sports Network, allowing fans to tune in and watch games live every Sunday. She said, “the addition of the broadcast coverage is a testament to the league’s growth and success in recent years.”

Looking toward the future, the league has plans to continue expanding its reach, with hopes to attract more young girls to the sport and provide an engaging recreational activity outside of more traditional competitive sports. By offering a safe and inclusive space, the Steel City Kickers league aims to inspire the next generation of women and positively impact the community.

New league President Janelle McLain shared that the kickers’ expansion also looks like competing against other leagues. “We hope that both our crowds bring new spectators and supporters for both leagues. We are working on establishing our own field for each summer, and looking to find new ways to support local organizations that promote the health and well-being of women in Western Pennsylvania.“

As the 2023 season approaches, it is clear that the Steel City Kickers league and Wilkinsburg Alive and Kicking Team are set for continued growth and success. With a few open slots on their roster, the team is actively seeking new players to join them. Interested individuals can reach out to coach Haywood El for more information. Those looking to learn more about the other teams in the Steel City Kickers league can reach out to President Janelle McLain for further details. 

As Yvette and her team continue to work toward building a healthier and more connected community through kickball and beyond, the future looks bright for Wilkinsburg and its residents.

Jourdan Hicks is PublicSource’s senior community correspondent. She can be reached at Jourdan@publicsource.org.

This story is part of PublicSource’s Points of Pride coverage chronicling and mapping the strengths of diverse communities.

The post Kicking in the right direction appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Relive the voices of the future in the season finale of From the Source! Our Pittsburgh-area teen co-hosts have shared their perspectives on mental health, activism, immigration and more with humor and bravery throughout the season. With their unique and honest perspectives, our teen guests have left us with hope for the next generation. Tune in to the final episode of From the Source’s fourth season to hear the teens speak their truth.

TRANSCRIPT

Jourdan: Welcome to the season finale of From the Source Podcast. Over the past few months, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting 11 insightful conversations with Pittsburgh-area teens. They’ve shared their perspectives on the issues that are shaping youth culture today, from mental health and immigration to activism and environmental justice. They’ve opened up about the challenges they face in their daily lives, the hopes they have for the future. Through their stories, we’ve gained a deeper understanding of the inner emotional life of teens and the potential they have to make a positive impact on the world. 

In this final episode of Season Four, we revisit some of the key themes and ideas that emerged throughout the season. One common thread from these conversations is the importance of having confidence and a sense of purpose. One of the most powerful stories we’ve heard this season came from Jaia, one of the honorees of the Do the Write Thing writing contest. Through her essay, Jaia was able to start processing the trauma she and her cousins had experienced when they witnessed the shooting at the Haunted Hills Hayride in September. 2021. Tragically, a 15-year-old boy lost his life in a shooting. 

Jaia: Hello. My name is Jaia Harrison. I live at Avalon. I am 14 years old and I go to Northgate High School and I’m a freshman. 

Jourdan: While speaking with us, Jaia didn’t want to revisit the experience of talking to the police, but she did share that it was a turning point for her. It was a light switch moment, as she put it, that woke her up to the urgent need to address teen gun violence. 

Jaia: So as I’m writing this essay, I’m really like thinking to myself, I don’t want to go through this again. I don’t want to have to see my little cousins go through this again. I don’t want to have to see somebody’s mother go through this again, you know? So really, I think that’s where my light switch came from, because it’s always there. But I didn’t realize it was there. You know, the Do the Write Thing essay and whole entire experience really helped me flip my switch to want to be an advocate, to stop youth violence. 

Jourdan: Cayah Leavy, in episode two, says her parents show they care for her by checking in with her about her mental health. 

Cayah: I think I’m able to say things to my parents and they understand. Do they put words into my mouth sometimes? Do they think they know how I feel sometimes? Sure. And is it always right? It’s almost 95% of the time wrong. Which is okay. They care. 

Jourdan: Mm hmm. 

Cayah: That’s important to me. I think they just don’t overreact about it. They don’t act like this is so crazy. They don’t get flustered by what I’m saying. You know, they don’t make me feel like what I’m saying is crazy. I think that’s what makes me feel okay. 

Jourdan: Senior Amaya Dorman spoke to us about how teens use social media and how it affects them and how Amaya’s personally using her social media as a vision board for the life of her dreams. 

Amaya: So my name is Amaya Dorman. I live in Swisshelm Park, which is like the Swissvale/Edgewood area. I’m 17 years old. I go to Allderdice High School. 

Jourdan: How did you come to decide that this is something that you wanted to speak about for our season of teen voices, issues and things shaping teens impacting teen culture?

Amaya: Like, initially I was like, this is really interesting to me because like, social media affects like a lot of different aspects of our lives. So you have to talk about like, you know, how is all of this at your consuming, how does that affect you as a person? It’s like, you know, I want to live that life, like they seem happy. I want to be happy. But you’re only getting small bursts of videos or you’re only getting a picture and like, that’s happiness for them. But we also have to think about like, what’s happiness for us? Like, as our own people, social media creates a really, like, unrealistic high expectation of how you should be enjoying your life. When you see everybody like going to Dubai for their birthday. 

TikTok video: Me and my girl, we are in Dubai

Amaya: I’m not in Dubai, I can afford to go to Dubai. Unfortunately, like working 9 to 5, like working 9 to 5 at a regular building, you can’t really afford to go to Dubai. I feel like it’s kind of hard to have accountability in the sense of like, social media reflects the standards that we have. And then, like as a society, we reflect social media. So it’s like one big, like reflective mirror, which kind of sucks because like, well, who do you hold accountable if everybody is like bouncing back and forth between like where they’re getting their ideas from? So I think that’s kind of hard. 

Jourdan: Sam spoke about the standards he was being asked to reflect to his parents. 

Sam: My name is Sam Alawadhi. I am a senior at Allderdice High School. Shout out Allderdice, you know. I am Arab. I identify as Muslim, though I’m not the most religious. I am an immigrant, a first-generation immigrant. I am French born, but technically from Yemen. I am a student. Education is so like, important in my life because if I complete the college degree and get this job that I’ve always dreamed of and my parents have always dreamed of, it’s like they succeeded. Like their life is now complete. Like, that’s what they tell me all the time. It’s like what they say. They’re like, it’s like it’s worth it that they came here and the amount of things that they risked and the amount of things that they sacrificed for me to come here and I do what I set out to do. I feel like that’s why they make it so important. They’re like, we want to make this worth it for us and for you. I always wonder, I’m like, if I wasn’t like that, if I wasn’t very college driven, like I didn’t want to go to college, I wanted to do like, trade school or like some gap year or something like that. If I wasn’t that by myself, like, what would my parents think? And I don’t know what they would think now because I’m like, even if they didn’t tell me do it, if they said, do whatever the hell you wanted to do since we came here, we don’t care what you do, I think I’d still be the same person that I am today. Like academic-wise. 

Jourdan: Teen entrepreneur and speaker Jazmiere Bates emphasized the importance of adults taking teens and their ideas seriously. 

Jazmiere: Hi, everybody. My name is Jazmiere Bates. I’m originally from the Hill District, but I live in Verona now. I am 16. I go to Winchester Thurston, and I am a Virgo. So I had a good opportunity with Ms. Tammy Thompson. I love her so much. It was when she was coming up with the Gallery on Penn. If you never heard of it, it was a storefront with like multiple different spots to give other small businesses ind Pittsburgh a chance to, like, expand their business. There’s a couple other people, and I actually had to pitch my idea to them. So me and my mom, we like went to the Dollar Store. We got like this poster, a poster so I can do my vision board. And at the time I think I was like eight. I was either eight or like 10 or something, and I didn’t know what a pitch was. So I was like, okay, I’m just going to like, talk about it. And I wasn’t even nervous. I remember because like now when I do pitch competitions, I get nervous because it’s like there’s money involved, there’s judges, there’s like a bunch of people interested in the business and stuff like that. So I was just like telling them about it. You just seen hand nods and stuff like that. And then it was like, okay, you’re in. Like, that’s how it was. I’m like, Okay. 

Jourdan: Were you surprised?

Jazmiere: I wasn’t surprised. I was just like, I didn’t know it could be that easy. I always took myself seriously. It was just a lot of people, like, don’t have, like, respect for me because of my age. I think it’s because some like, adults can relate, like when they were like kids themselves, like they didn’t take their self seriously a lot of times. They think, oh, since I’m not taking since I wasn’t taking myself serious back then, I don’t think this person’s taking theirself serious right now. But it’s like, come on now. I’m 16. Like c’mon

Jourdan: Grace Glowczewski says her activism comes directly from the love and respect her parents taught her to have for all living things. 

Grace: I’m Grace. I go to CAPA and I’m a senior. I definitely got into environmental justice because of my parents, especially my mom. Like I’ve always been vegetarian because not only because I’m sad about animals, but because it’s so bad for the environment. So, like, every decision that my mom has made has been so conscious and good about being environmentalists on all fronts, like the personal front and the like, the lobbying front, everything about that. And also Girl Scouts. Like we’ve been just taught to love our Earth so much, like we go on hikes and and like that has just been so ingrained into my childhood and like, who I am, like the Earth means a lot to me on a personal level. So that means like I will go to lengths to protect it. Like as youth, this is a particularly important issue because we are the most affected by it, but we have the least say in it. Like we are not able to go into Congress and make laws. We are not able to vote, most of us. We’re not able to buy our own groceries and make sure we’re getting organic foods. We’re not able to put solar panels on our roofs. Like we are only able to have conversations and educate ourselves. And I feel like as we get older, it’s our responsibility to educate younger people. 

Jourdan: In that same episode, we learned the issues that teens feel their generation is inheriting and how they encourage theirr peers to get involved and change societal issues. 

Grace: Like as a Girl Scout troop, basically, we decided that we felt uncomfortable selling Girl Scout cookies because they had palm oil in them that were from like an unsustainable source. And palm oil is a huge reason why deforestation happens in the Amazon. And we were originally concerned about orangutan lives, but not only orangutans are being affected by it, so it seems like a huge issue. Like we went to Girl Scouts and we were like, this is something we are not comfortable supporting, but instead of just deciding not to sell, that would make a very small impact. But we went to Girl Scouts and we were like, this is the problem. Like this is the solution and like we want to see change. And although nothing has actually happened yet, there are still people, like we mobilized Girl Scouts around the country and kind of got the issue out there, proposed a solution. So we create, we’re creating like sustainable change. 

Jourdan: Tierra Bush was using her voice on the Black Eyed Peas in a Pod podcast to create a long-lasting effect on how girls her age and younger are educated on how to protect and take care of themselves. 

Tierra: I’m Tierra Bush. I’m 17 years old, 17 years old. I’m a senior at Woodland Hills High School and I live in the area of  Wilkins Township slash Eastmont. Because I’ve always wanted to be, not always, but since like freshman year, I’ve always wanted to become a gynecologist, OB-GYN. And as getting older and having these conversations about sexual assault and sexual responsibility, it’s opened my eyes to why things have let slide. And it just, it just made me look at just a lot of different things. It just maybe like show how like uneducated I was, like super uneducated I was about my whole body and just like, I’m not going as I. Like hearing it, like when I relive it is like, oh my goodness. Like, wow. Like Tierra, We had no clue. And so it really just I just really kept pushing the idea of me becoming an obstetrician and gynecologist, and just advocating and not just advocating, but educating young women like me and young girls and like, not just only just like being in a delivery room or just being in an office, but being in clinics and saying, hey, or even being in rooms like this, and saying, like this is not okay. 

Jourdan: Our co-hosts reminded us that teens have the capacity for incredible creativity, empathy and resilience. They’ve challenged us to see them as individuals with unique voices and experiences and to support them in pursuing their dreams and ambitions. Thanks again for listening to Season Four of From the Source podcast. If you’ve missed any of our conversations with teens, you can find all episodes on our website, Publicsource.org or on Kidsburgh.org and on most podcasting platforms. We return in the fall for Season Five. Season Four of From the Source podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor in chief. Sound Design and Mixing done by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions. PublicSource is an independent, nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find all of our reporting and storytelling at Publicsource.org. I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well. 

The post Youth voices unleashed: From the Source finale | S4, Ep. 12 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In this episode, we dive into the intersection of news and technology and how it’s shaping the awareness of teen culture. The minds behind this episode: young people who attended a journalism workshop co-hosted by PublicSource and Saturday Light Brigade Radio’s Youth Media Center in the North Side. From news access to reliability, we explore the impact of technology on news and the types of stories that become news. 

Tune in to hear from the next generation of journalists and critical thinkers on their perspectives of the role of media in society.

TRANSCRIPT

Jourdan: In this special edition of From the Source podcast, we dive into the intersection of news and technology and how it’s shaping the awareness of teen culture. The minds behind this episode are teen journalists who attended a journalism workshop co-hosted by a PublicSource and Saturday Light Brigade Radio’s Youth Media Center in the North Side. From news access to reliability, we explore the impact of technology on news, the types of stories that become news. 

Jourdan: But first I decided to shake things up by having our guests take questions out of a fishbowl for their peers to answer on the spot. Listen to Elena, Swati, Pranita, Emma, Charlie and Jay share their questions and thoughts about news, access and personal influence. 

Swati Mylarappa: What superpower would you use to help the Pittsburgh region? 

Swati: My name is Swati Mylarappa. I’m 16 years old. I go to Fox Chapel Area High School. I’m a sophomore. So you know how Supergirl and Superman have breath that can, like, snuff out a fire? I guess I’d want to have that ability just to like it, be on standby near fires and just, like, fly up and be, like, full blow air and then just fire gone. 

Emma Pearman: I would probably be invisible. 

Emma: My name is Emma Perman. I am 15. 

Emma: I live in Shaler Township. but I do cyber school at PA Cyber. 

Emma: Yeah, just kind of hearing the truth and what people say behind cameras and stuff I think would help out a lot of people. 

Elena Xiao: My name is Elena. I’m from Ingomar Middle School. I’m 12 and in 7th grade. 

Jourdan: What’s your question? What’s the answer? 

Elena: What is credible news? Unbiased and truthful. 

Swati: Honest and viable. I’m a debater, so I always try to stick with facts that I see on multiple articles rather than just one. 

Swati: Multiple opinions. 

Emma: Multiple, like, sources. 

Jay: Credible news is news that has facts to support it, like pictures, proof, primary sources to back it up with — that is credible news to me. 

Pranita Chakkingai: Yeah. Anything that you can trust because it comes from like valid sources and they’ve backed it up. 

Pranita: I’m Pranita. I’m a freshman. Ninth grade. I go to South Fayette High School. 

Jay: My name is Jay. I’m from City High. I’m 14. Ninth grade. 

Pranita: How do you get your news? I use multiple things like the news websites, news apps on my phone, and I use New York Times, CNN. I know it’s biased, but I still use it. 

Jay: See, I’m not really into the more worldly problems. So I would say Snapchat. Tik Tok. I don’t really use it for news, but like, if something will pop up, I’ll be like, that’s interesting and then I’ll go search it up. Like, you know, when you click on Google and you scroll down, there’s just those little articles. I will click on those. They seem, they’re so interesting. 

Jourdan: OK, so both of you get your news primarily through phone and apps. 

Pranita: Oh, I didn’t say social media, but I was going to… I was trying to act like the smart person who uses like actual websites. But I use social media probably more than I use other sources. But like, I take broadcast journalism and every day she asks us, what’s the biggest news? And you have to say one news story and like, you can’t just like say like the main you have to like actually read it because you have to explain a little bit. So like every day I have to at least read one. 

Charlie Sweeney: I’m also in the same boat of I don’t really follow news very much, but I get it from like social media. 

Charlie, I’m a junior. I go to Obama. News, it should be like, you know, a way to stay updated with the happenings in the world and, you know, to be able to see what’s going on. But then, you know, it’s also used for a lot of other purposes, like manipulating people, which is not great. 

Jourdan: Teens know that staying informed about what’s happening in the world is important. But with so much news out there, it could be tough to know what to believe. These teens have grown up in the era of bots, deep fake profiles, and filters, knowing when they’re being manipulated even in the slightest bit is important to them. These teens want news that’s reliable and easy to access with daily updates that come straight to their phones. They want reporting that gives different perspectives from different sources, includes verifiable facts and reveals the truth. 

Jourdan: I’ve been hosting our podcast From the Source for three years. We started it at the beginning of the pandemic. We created this podcast to make sure that people could still be connected during the pandemic. 

Jourdan: This season, we’re focusing on what teens feel like are the issues and things that are shaping who they are, who they hope to become. So we wanted to give the mics directly to young adults and teens to tell us directly what they were experiencing, what they go through. 

Jourdan: I like podcasting. Like, you know, the news started out as like an oral tradition and then the newspaper, and then radio, and then TV, your nightly news programs and then blogs and then video content and now we’re at podcasting. Do y’all have any questions about podcasting that I can answer for you? 

Swati: So I actually ended up coming to this because I want to start my own podcast. It is related to like mental health and I guess being a good communicator, academics, stress. I just want to A. learn how to articulate my ideas really well, B. learn how to use the podcasting equipment, and C. how to come across in a tone that is like, good for your viewers. Not viewers, like listeners. 

Jourdan: Audience! 

Swati: Audience! 

Jourdan: Your basics are sound, story, style. So your sound is just you talking naturally. Your sound is also making sure that people are not distracted around or not distracted by what’s going on around you. Sometimes that adds like a style to the podcast because you can almost like envision what the person is doing, but sometimes it’s distracting. So making sure that your sound is cool. Making sure that you are fully confident about the subject matter that you are talking about. Being yourself is a style as well. So it’s all about being natural and making sure that people can hear you through the amazing equipment that you’ve purchased. We’re not just talking about anything, there’s a beginning, middle and end. Some of that includes storyboarding and outlining your story. Sometimes I like to have a free-flowing conversation, and if I don’t get what I’m supposed to get, I go back and say, OK, these are the questions I need to answer.

Elena: A question. So, you know, as a middle schooler, I’m sure other middle schoolers feel this way, like it’s awkward because, like, you know, you want to talk to people, but you sometimes don’t know how. So what’s the best way of like, especially like being on a podcast, you have to connect with people. So how do you do it? 

Jourdan: I try to be myself and not listen to the voices in my head that may be telling me that I sound weird or I’m talking too fast or I don’t sound smart. Trying not to feed into the insecurities that kind of pop in my head when I’m talking to people. So I have to be present in not thinking about things I should not be paying attention to. So I would say directly to answer your question, it’s all about confidence or faking like you’re confident. 

Emma: So since I do cyber school, you don’t really get to see, like, sometimes people’s faces or the first thing they hear is your voice or your chat that you send through. And it really is about confidence, like building up that confidence. And I do theater as well, and everything is about confidence. And just like believing in yourself and really not caring what other people think of you. 

Emma: Because once you have just like a little bit of confidence in yourself, you can go so far in so many different aspects of things. 

Jourdan: During his presentation, Rich Lord highlighted the importance of in-depth investigative reporting. He discussed PublicSource’s recent investigation into the use of ShotSpotter information by prosecutors to convict people of crimes. This investigation uncovered serious flaws in the way that ShotSpotter data was being used in the criminal justice system, which had resulted in a questionable conviction and potential civil rights violations. 

Rich Lord: I’ve been doing reporting in Pittsburgh for about 27 years, and I don’t mean to be callous, but, you know, in the news there’s a saying if it, if it bleeds, it leads, you know, which means if somebody gets shot or, you know, if there’s, if there’s a violent, tragic incident, that’s usually the top of the news. You’ll see a reporter sometimes under an umbrella out in the rain, you know, in front of police headquarters saying, I’m here in front of police headquarters waiting for, you know, the Chief of Police to make a statement or waiting for the police to bring a suspect in or something like that. 

That’s not what we do. We’re kind of more contemplative news. We’re kind of the second, I think, level or third level of analysis of an event. So when we see a trend in our community, we try to better understand it and then share that understanding with our readers. So we’re not going to run out to the police headquarters right after a shooting or run out to, goodness knows, somebody’s home or something like that after a tragedy. We’re going to try to digest it, kind of figure out what the overall trends are. 

Rich: I’m going to try to show you a couple examples of that because we did see in the last couple of years, especially after the pandemic-related restrictions started to, you know, kind of fold, we did see an increase in violence in our community, an increase in shootings, and we felt like we needed to respond to that in a thoughtful way. So I’m going to walk you through kind of how that happens. This is a story I’m going to talk about. 

Rich: ShotSpotter reports gunshots in Pittsburgh 3,000 times a year. One case to deflect its use in court. It involves this guy named Angelo Weeden, who has been convicted of attempted homicide and he’s convicted based on evidence from a sensor, in part a sensor that was hanging on a pole somewhere and detected a gunshot at a certain time. That was used as evidence in the case against this man. And he was convicted based on this. This lawyer who’s representing Angelo said, I don’t feel this is right because, you know, he’s convicted based on this technology, that, boy, you can’t really explain it. People don’t understand it. You can’t, you know, in a criminal trial, you have something called cross-examination, right? Where there’s a witness who’s up on the stand and I’m the lawyer for the defense. And I say, OK, but, you know, did you really see that? Or how far away were you? Or, you know, what did you eat for breakfast that day or whatever? 

But you can’t cross-examine an electronic sensor sitting up on a pole. You can’t cross-examine a technology. So this attorney was really concerned. It had this pretty interesting case about the use of this technology called ShotSpotter in the conviction of his client. So we’re thinking, OK, what do we do with this? We start thinking about what concerns this case raises, what concerns the violence in our community raises, what information we could use to come to improve the public’s understanding of these things. How does this all come together? 

Emma: Who was the target audience? 

Rich: Really, I think anybody in Pittsburgh who’s civic-minded, you know, our motto is Stories for a Better Pittsburgh. We want our audience to be really anybody who wants to kind of move the needle on Pittsburgh’s civic discourse, on the livability of Pittsburgh, on the equity and fairness of Pittsburgh.

Elena: We’re in like a rapidly changing world. So what do you think the future of journalism looks like? 

Rich: Yeah, that’s a great question, especially with ChatGPT and, you know, now the new Bing that you can almost ask it to write an article for you. So what is the future of journalism? There’s part of journalism that has always been just plain showing up at the darn council meeting or the city planning meeting that nobody really wants to go to and synthesizing what you learn there and putting it out to people in a digestible form, you know, does that part of journalism go away? Does ChatGPT do that for you? You know, can you type in what happened at yesterday’s city council meeting and get a summary at some point in the future? I don’t know. But what I think I know, what I kind of hope I know, is that this kind of analytical journalism, this kind of making a plan, obtaining disparate pieces of information, synthesizing it, trying to impart a fuller understanding to an audience is going to be hard to do electronically, at least I hope so. 

Elena: So I think we need something that’s like truthful and just short but digestible, not necessarily written content, because, you know, I sometimes don’t want to look at, like, words. I like to listen because I listen to Apple News Daily Shumita Basu. She’s really good at just breaking down the daily stories and it just takes me 11, 12 minutes and I get what I want for my day. 

Swati: I like verticals because you can look at them and then review them. And then I’m a student at a high school, in high school right now, so it’s like easier than replaying audio. I can just read over the script. 

Emma: Well, what I really work on is my school’s newspaper, and I am cyber school, so kids have to hear it from all over the state. And that’s really difficult to try and find something where you can relate to everybody. So we kind of really work on like events that are happening that kind of affect everyone. And I think that’s something like what is going to like, affect everyone? If that makes sense. 

Rich: So PA Cyber’s like 10,000 students? 

Emma: Oh, there’s so many students. Yeah. 

Rich: It’s all over the state? 

Emma: It’s all over the state.

Emma: Like, I have friends from, like on the other side of the state and I do get like comments of like, oh, like I read this and it was,like, fantastic. But it is really hard to, like, appeal to everyone. 

Rich: How do you do that? What do you report on from PA cyber? 

Emma: So one role that the advisers have is it has to relate to PA Cyber in some way. So that does kind of affect everyone. So I kind of do like events that are happening, I think, events, field trips that are going on. But I want to try and take it into like a way of like what is happening in certain communities, just kind of like expand it a little bit, maybe like, like parts that like, oh, this is happening in the Pittsburgh area, this is happening in the Philly area. 

And it’s really hard and difficult to talk to everyone and get those answers online. That’s something I really want to like expand on is like getting in person because I feel like everything is going online and it is helpful in some certain ways. Like I am excelling in my schoolwork online, but like with news, it’s , there’s like a part that needs to be in person. 

Rich: I’m with you. And particularly since COVID, it’s been harder and harder to make that work in the news business. And we’ve really come to rely on Zoom and email, and it just doesn’t have the richness, it just doesn’t have the back and forth, the exchange of ideas, the getting to know each other, the relationship building that reporting has traditionally relied on. 

Emma: Yeah, I get most of my answers through email and it’s like to get that like personality, it’s so hard. It’s yeah, it’s very difficult. 

Rich: And like we said, take the case we describe, you can’t cross-examine an automatic sensor on a pole. You can’t really cross-examine via email either. You know, it’s, it’s, that’s, that’s tough. 

Jourdan: As we wrap up this special edition of From the Source podcast, it’s clear that today’s teens face unique challenges when it comes to accessing and understanding the news. But as we’ve heard from our interviewees, many of their concerns are shared by previous generations, including the ever-present threat of misinformation. 

Jourdan: These young people are looking for credible sources that provide verifiable information in a format that fits their busy lives. It’s crucial that we help them navigate the amorphous concept of news and teach them how to filter the constant information overload they face each day. By identifying what’s relevant to their lives, they can be better equipped to make informed decisions about the world around them. For the teens we talk to, news is defined as important — verified information that helps them make sense of the world. 

Jourdan: As you look to the future of journalism, it’s clear that this next generation of news consumers and reporters will be equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate the complex and ever changing-landscape of modern media. 

Jourdan: Season four of From the Source podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Sound design and mixing is done by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions. We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn how you can share your story with us or nominate a young person ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to Jourdan@Publicsource.org.

PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pa. You can find all of our reporting and storytelling at PublicSource.org I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well. 

The post How news and technology are influencing young minds | S4, Ep. 11 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In a candid conversation, high school freshman Jazmiere Bates opens up about her experiences as an entrepreneur and the challenges she’s had to overcome to establish her brand. She shares her journey, including the inspiration and dedication that goes into building a successful business, and the importance of staying encouraged despite facing insecurity and doubts from others.

TRANSCRIPT 

Jazmiere Bates: Hi my name is Jazmiere Bates. I’m originally from the Hill District, but I live in Verona now. I am 16. I go to Winchester Thurston, and I am a Virgo.

Jazmiere: I think I overthink things a lot. A lot of people tell me that. I think I believe that. I think ahead. That’s how I would label it.  

Jourdan Hicks: Jazmiere lives with her mom and her fur baby Kendrick. He’s a small but stocky pit bull mix, and he’s the center of her world. The other major love in her life is her business, Kin of Duncan.

Jourdan: She started it when she was 8 years old. Big Virgo Energy. The name pays tribute to her roots and shows respect. For her family. Her mother’s last name is Duncan and she is her kin, Kin of Duncan. Get it? 

Jazmiere: I think I want people, when they hear the name Jazmiere or Kin of Duncan, I want them to be like inspired to create their own business or kids to be inspired to create their own business. 

Jourdan: It was a dream that started in the Hill District. 

Jazmiere: So when I was younger, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. It’s basically like a reading disability. My mom brought this cricket machine for me and over the summer I used to like create like little clothing for my dog.

Jazmiere: I had a dog when I lived on the Hill District. His name was Socks. I love that dog so much, too, like he’d run away and he’ll be like at my nana’s door and we’re like, oh my gosh, where is Socks? We lost Socks. And like my Nana’s like, I got Socks right here. And I used to create clothing for him. So when we used to like go on our walks, me and my mom and Socks, a lot of people expressed their interest into the clothing. At Petco, there was like good bandanas, but I was like, I can probably make something a little bit more better and more reasonable. 

Jourdan: Soon after, a local entrepreneur and business coach approached Jazmiere about pitching her business to be a vendor inside a new pop-up store and business incubator in East Liberty. 

Jazmiere: So I had a good opportunity with, um, Ms. Tammy Thompson.

Jazmiere:I love her so much. It was when she was coming up with the Gallery on Penn, and if you never heard of it, it was a storefront with, like, multiple different spots to give other small businesses in Pittsburgh a chance to, like, expand their business. There’s a couple other people and I actually had to pitch my idea to them.

Jazmiere: So me and my mom, we like went to the Dollar Store. We get like those posters so I can do my vision board. And at the time I think I was like 8. I was either 8 or 10 or something and I didn’t know what a pitch was, so I was like, OK, I’m just gonna like talk about it. I wasn’t even nervous.

Jazmiere: I remember it ‘cause like, now when I do pitch competitions, I get nervous because it’s like, there’s money involved, there’s judges, there’s like a bunch of people interested in the business and stuff like that. So I was just like telling them about it, you just seen head nods and stuff like that. And then it was like, OK, you’re in.

Jazmiere:Like that’s how it was. I’m like, OK. 

Jourdan: Were you were surprised?

Jazmiere: I wasn’t surprised.  I just didn’t know it could be that easy. 

Jourdan: Kin of Duncan has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority. Penn Hill’s Charter School for Entrepreneurship Innovation Works, Pittsburgh City Paper and NEXTpittsburgh.

Jourdan: Think of Jazmiere as a younger, hipper, more bubbly Mark Cuban. 

Jazmiere: When I introduce myself to some people, they’re like, oh yeah, I hear about you from such and such. That’s when I didn’t think of myself as just Jazmiere. I thought of myself as Jazmiere, the owner of Kin Duncan, the owner of this brand that people are hearing about in Pittsburgh.

Jazmiere: I’ll say one thing that I learned and am still learning is how to become a better entrepreneur. That’s one thing that I’m still learning to do, and it is slightly a challenge, but it’s like I’m OK with this challenge. I wanna be an entrepreneur that, you know, expands their business and is not like, afraid to go up to a person and be like, ‘Hey, like let’s create something together. Let’s collaborate on something. I think this will be big for us. This would, this is something that the world or people that their, like their target audiences would want.’

Jourdan: What do you want your brand, Kin of Duncan, to do in Pittsburgh? 

Jazmiere: I would want people to remember all the things that I did in Pittsburgh. When I graduate high school, I do not plan to stay in Pittsburgh, like I plan to go outside of Pittsburgh for college, but I want people to just remember the things that I did in Pittsburgh, different pop-up shops or the um, block party where I basically shut down a street. Right beside the, um, Gallery on Penn and there was a bunch of different local dog shops and it was honestly really fun and I will do it again, but I hope people will remember that.

Jazmiere:I want them to like tell the story for some reason. There was this one girl, she was so cool. She created her own business when she was 8, something like that. As Kin of Duncan’s success drew more attention, Jazmiere found herself having interactions that she felt like didn’t align with her true self and undermined her sense of self-concept.

Jourdan: Kids at her school didn’t believe she was a business owner, and adults had a hard time accepting Jazmiere as an industry peer. Teens’ and adults’ expectations of her made her question, why don’t people take kids seriously?

Jazmiere: I always took myself seriously, it was just a lot of people don’t have, like, respect for me ‘cause of my age.

Jazmiere: I think it’s because some adults can relate, like when they were like kids themselves, like they didn’t take their self serious a lot of times. So they think, oh, since I’m not taking my, since I wasn’t taking myself serious back then, I don’t think this person’s taking their self serious right now.

Jazmiere: But it’s like, come on now. I’m 16. Like, come on. Treat me with some respect.

Jourdan: This season, we have heard from many teens who have expressed their need for guidance and validation from the adults in their lives, and just how crucial it is to have someone who they can spend time with, acknowledge your strengths and make them feel special.

Jourdan: Jazmiere says her mom is the first person that comes to mind when she thinks about what’s inspired her motivation to achieve her goals, and who told her that she had potential. 

Jazmiere: So my mom didn’t teach me how to sew. A lot of people do think like, oh, your mom taught you how to sew? And I’m like, no. She always likes to put me into like different classes and like to learn new things.

Jazmiere: And that’s one thing that I like that my mom does because I was interested in animals, so I wanted to become a zoologist. So, my mom would send me to like the zoo camp, that’s what it was called at the zoo. And like, we’ll like, um, see like the behind the scenes of like, what’s going on. Like I remember we got to feed like a baby hippo before we got to see the enclosure of the giraffes.

Jazmiere: I think one thing that I see from my mom that she does for me, and I hope that’s like a good example, is her introducing me to new opportunities or new activities.

Jourdan: Jazmiere’s experience is a great example of how trying new things and practicing our interests can help us build self-esteem. When we take on new challenges, we’re pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone and proving to ourselves that we’re capable of more than we thought.

Jourdan: And when we found something that we’re passionate about, we can become really good at it with practice, which can boost our confidence and self-esteem even more.

Jazmiere: Do you see your mom working on her self-esteem or how do you see her working on her self-esteem? 

Jourdan: I see her working on it by like, she’s really accountable with herself, like with herself.

Jazmiere: Like she’ll say,  oh, Jazmiere, you’re procrastinating. You can’t do this. You cannot do this. And I, for me, I’m the opposite. Like, I hate hearing from her mouth personally, I hate hearing her like saying stuff that I do because it’s like, OK, I’m working on it though. Please don’t remind me of it because I’m trying to find a better solution to work on this.

Jazmiere: So please stop reminding me when I’m working so hard to do it. But that’s something that she does and that is something that I’m trying to work on, ‘cause she does it and it’s like, it’s not that her life becomes easy, but something that she’s struggling with, it turns out more not into a struggle, more into like riding a bicycle so easily.

Jourdan: Jazmiere is grateful for all of the blessings and recognition that she’s received, but she’s also aware that her life isn’t perfect. In fact, there are some significant matters in areas in her life that she wishes she could change. 

Jourdan: What else you wanna talk about so far? We got, you know, this is Jazmiere, she does the things and she has a successful business and these are some of the experiences she had, you know, these are some of her thoughts as a teen living in Verona, whose opinion is important because it exists.

Jazmiere: I feel like I wanna talk about like, I don’t know how to word this goodly, but probably like how fathers have like affected like their, like kids. Not only just sons, but daughters. 

Jourdan: OK, cool. So, let’s talk about that.

Jourdan: Do you mind me asking you questions about your dad? 

Jazmiere: Sure. 

Jourdan: OK. What would you like to share about your dad? 

Jazmiere: So my dad, he’s like, in the beginning of my life, he was in my life, but then it was like my mom and my dad separated. I look at him differently now, like I don’t look at him as a father, but it’s like, I kind of like look at him sideways as a father.

Jazmiere: Now, for me, in my opinion, he like doesn’t meet the definition of a father. It’s slightly hurtful because it’s like, you know, like your dad’s like your first, like the first like man to ever love you and stuff like that. So it’s kind of like, like an ache in my heart sometimes, but then it’s like I’m slightly OK because I really, the definition that he thinks is a father, it’s, it’s even more painful sometimes.

Jazmiere: And I think that’s a lot of, not a lot of kids can relate, but slightly can relate. Like, I remember the probably last time that I spoke with him was probably like last summer. I remember he was like asking me like what grades you were in. Like he couldn’t even like know my grade level. That was the part that I like found like, oh my gosh, like you’re my father, you’re supposed to know this. And he was like asking me since I was in eighth grade at the time — well, upcoming ninth grader. He was like asking me like, oh, so what school are you going to? And when I was talking to him, I was like, um, you’re supposed to know this. And I know some people are like, that’s your father, so you’re supposed to have respect for him, but it’s like, how can I have respect for somebody that doesn’t have respect for me? So I can’t give you 100% respect when you can’t even gimme 100% back. So it’s just gonna be, it’s just gonna be at a 0% of respect. And I was like, um, I think you’re supposed to like know, like my grade level and stuff like that.

Jazmiere: You shouldn’t be asking me at all, and then it was just like, oh, have a nice life. Bye. So then I was like, oh, OK. But it’s like there’s zero communication at all. Once in a while, like he’ll probably call or like he’ll try to text or something like that, but then it’s like you had like, it’s like there’s been so many chances that I’m honestly like just like done with it.

Jourdan: So yeah, I hear you saying like, it’s hard for you to respect your dad because you don’t feel like he is respectful of his role in your life and responsible with his role in your life. Or you are the sun. Jazmiere is the sun. Her planets around who orbit her are her entrepreneurship, her business, her school, her interactions with people, your hobbies, your interests, the TV shows you watch, the things you think about your relationships with people.

Jourdan: How do you feel like your dad plays a role in that universe for you? 

Jazmiere: I feel like there’s like sometimes more like you need your dad for like certain things for like that role in like a kid’s life. And then there’s sometimes it’s like it doesn’t affect my life. Him not being in my life, like has affected my life slightly, but it’s like, when like sometimes like my friends would talk about, they’ll be like, yeah, there’s just like one guy that I like and stuff like that, but it’s like my dad’s like, oh, no, like, he’s like a such and such and such and such.

Jazmiere: But it’s like I can’t tell my dad if I had a crush on like a guy before because it’s like, oh, he’s not there.  Or like, just like for like the manly things, but it’s like, you know what? I can like take a class on like how to change a tire, how to, like, do your own oil changes and things like that.

Jazmiere: It’s not like me saying like, I need my dad, but like I have to work around and I have to come up with a different solution because he’s not there to do that for me. So it’s like sometimes I do feel hurt.

Jazmiere: Like I said, there’s like an ache in my heart and I’m like, ah. But then other times it’s like, I don’t think if he was there, I don’t think he’ll be able to do that because I don’t think his father was like, didn’t like live up to that definition for him.

Jazmiere: So it’s like since his father didn’t do that, now he’s like, inflecting it on. 

Jourdan: One thing that Jazmiere was thoughtful enough to share is that although her and her father’s relationship is inactive, she would appreciate it if he showed up for her in a different way, by supporting her business. This could include sharing her business information on social media, sharing when she’s being recognized by the media —  like now — or simply letting people know that he has a daughter who’s making waves as a young and established business person, because it would mean a lot to her.

Jourdan: Jazmiere’s experience highlights the importance of support and encouragement, especially from those who are closest to us, even if we don’t have perfect relationships with our family members or peers.

Jourdan: We can still show up for them in other ways. By supporting and encouraging each other’s dreams and ambitions, we can help each other to build more confidence and self-esteem.

Season four from The Source Podcast is produced, reported, and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Sound design and mixing done by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions. 

We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn how you can share your story with us, or nominate a young person at ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode from the source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to Jourdan@PublicSource.org.

PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find all of our storytelling and reporting at PublicSource.org. I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

The post A freshman founder takes us on an entrepreneurial journey of doubts and triumph | S4, Ep. 10 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

This week, McKeesport native Brandi Cox discusses her observations of what happens in a community when teen gun violence becomes the norm. Listen to what she is prepared to change in her school and city to save kids’ lives. 

TRANSCRIPT 

Brandi Cox: I love YVAC. YVAC is like everything to me. I get along with everybody at YVAC really well. I laugh with them. We get work done. Like I love YVAC. I’m never going to leave YVAC, I don’t think. They threatened to fire me a couple of times, but they were just playing.

Jourdan Hicks: That’s this week’s guest, Brandi Cox. She’s an eighth-grade student at McKeesport’s Founders’ Hall Middle School, and a third-generation resident of McKeesport, but currently lives in Dravosburg.

Jourdan: Brandi comes to us nominated by her comrades in aid: Saint, Tae, and Emily, from YVAC. Young Voices Action Collective. YVAC ‘s mission is to elevate youth voices surrounding community needs, social justice issues and upcoming elections. while meeting the basic needs of the community through mutual aid. Brandi has worked with them since 2022. 

Brandi: YVAC is a youth-led organization that feeds the homeless and helps house kids and young adults off the streets, we also build power in lower-income housing communities.

Jourdan: A chance encounter led Brandi to YVAC.

Brandi: I met Chris Ogburn, Organizing Consultant. I will, I won’t forget, I was in Valero’s and I was about to pay for my stuff and he gave me a paper. He was like, hey, you should come check out my free store, my aunt’s free store that we’re about to open up. And I was like, OK.  So I stopped by and that’s when I met Tae and after I met Tae, I just kept stopping by and he would then, that’s when I just started getting to know him and then  I just said, hey, I want to help out and work here. And Tae told me to fill out a paper and here I am.

Jourdan: YVAC has chapters in Detroit, Michigan, and Huntsville, Alabama. Brandi says the group has regular meetings over zoom and chapter meetings with their partners in different states a few times a year.  

Brandi: We just one big, like, we were just one family. Like we always laughed, we always got business done. Like we, we had deep conversations, like we sat down and had deep conversations and like it just made me kind of, made me be a better person and just do like, I want to do this, I wanna do that. Like what made me see what I want to do with my life. And it taught me a lot. Like it taught me, it really taught me a lot of stuff. 

Jourdan: When Brandi isn’t with her YVAC crew she spends time with her family. She lives with her mom and stepdad. Her grandma’s teaching her how to cook. 

Brandi: She be still up, and up in our kitchen, busting it down. We help her cook and stuff. She’s like, she’s starting to teach me some things. Like this one time, I said I had really had a taste for her gravy and rice pork chops, and she told me like she just busted down, like told me how to make the gravy. 

Jourdan: Brandi also spends a lot of time with her uncle, who is helping her expand her horizons… like eating chocolate-covered bugs.

Jourdan: When did you try chocolate-covered bugs? Like, take me, what? Where were you?

Brandi: I was out at Tanger Outlets with my uncle.  

Jourdan: OK. 

Brandi: We shop. 

Jourdan: Mm-hmm. 

Brandi: We like to, he’s really into fashion and things like that, so like we’ll do that. Um, so we was just out there chilling and that’s when he was like, hey, Nums — they call me Nums. He was like, hey, Nums, do you want to go try this, these bugs with me? I was like, uh, I didn’t know about it when I seen it, I was like, I mean, they might not be that bad.

Jourdan: If they selling ’em. 

Brandi: Yeah, and then I tried the chocolate-covered bugs and after I went to the chocolate-covered bugs, I tried the salt and vinegar. 

Jourdan: Vinegar? Bugs? What bugs were they?

Brandi: Crickets. I ate a cricket and I think I ate a scorpion. 

Jourdan: You adventurous.

Jourdan: Brandi’s adventurous spirit is often dampened by the violence in her hometown of McKeesport. Since the pandemic, she says she’s noticed a shift in her peers that’s reverberating throughout the city and affecting the way residents interact with one another.

Brandi: A lot of people know McKeesport is a very, very dangerous, a dangerous city … I hear gunshots all the time. It’s like I’m used to this kind of stuff. Like I hear gunshots all the time. I hear that someone died like, I look on my phone, another teenager died in McKeesport. Another kid got shot in McKeesport, another kid ran away. Another adult got shot, another store got robbed. 

Jourdan: Brandi feels like violence has become so normalized that even the police don’t respond like they should. She thinks about the way the whole city practically shut down when a police officer was killed and another was injured in a shootout with a suspect.

Brandi: A few weeks back, like last month, there was just two teenage boys that got, just got shot. 

Jourdan: Mm-hmm. 

Brandi: And there was another boy that got shot in Clairton and they, they didn’t do that either, so I’m just,  it’s just like they should treat how they treat the police officers. How they got shot is the way, how they treat, should treat how other people who got shot. Especially young kids like that. Especially 13- or 14-year-olds and things like that. That’s what they really should do. They shouldn’t just have like 10 to 15 police cop cars and then a couple of detectives out. No, they should have everybody out searching and everything, just everything on lockdown.

Jourdan: When you’re thinking about these things, do you typically keep it inside or do you talk to somebody about it?

Brandi: I talk to my mom about it sometimes because like yesterday I was telling my mom, this needs to be talked about because no one, no teachers, no principals, no one in school likes to talk about things like this. We have a police officer in our school that should just like have an assembly with each grade and be like, and talk about things like this.  My mom, she, she’s from McKeesport and she knows, like she’s really like, my family’s really known in McKeesport. My mom knows a lot of people in McKeesport. So when she sees things like this, it makes her upset and sick to her stomach because like she grew up with some of these people and like see their kids have died.

Brandi: So a few years back she had I think it was a blackout meeting or something like that. She had it out Christy Park. Um, and she talked about, she talked about violence. And she wanted to do a kids one, but she never, like with one with kids, but she never got to it.

Brandi: And I’m thinking, I want to do that and talk to ’em. Like we all gotta stay together ‘cause tomorrow’s never promised. Next week’s never promised, next second’s never promised. The next year’s never promised. Anything can happen any second, any minute of the day, and you can be … just like that. so like, it’s like a lot of people, like a lot of gang activity and things like that, like teenagers being in gangs, doing gang activity and stuff like that. It doesn’t need to be like that. Like everybody in McKeesport needs to stick together because every one of those kids that’s out McKeesport, that’s from McKeesport, I guarantee all their parents grew up with each other and they never had a problem with each other. They all went to school together.

Jourdan: In the first episode of the season, we talked to two students, Jaia and Deahmi, they were talking about what ideas they had for reducing the amount of violence between young adults, teens. What they hoped to be involved in, in solving that issue, and things that other people can do, right? So one of the things that kind of came out of that discussion was like, it kind of was like up to teens to figure out how they were going to fix the problem, how they were going to get each other to stop killing each other and shooting each other. It was up to kids to be mature enough to figure it out, and really it wasn’t adults doing enough to help kids figure it out.

Brandi: Oh my, yes. 

Jourdan: You feel that way, too? 

Brandi: It’s to the point, I had kept myself safe. It’s just moving away. I live in Dravosburg, that’s still McKeesport district, but it’s like nobody really don’t know where that’s at. 

Jourdan: Mm-hmm.  

Brandi: So like whenever people be like, where you from? I’ll be like, oh, I’m from McKeesport, but I stay in Dravosburg. They be like, where? Where is that at?

Brandi: I’m like, it’s really not that far. It’s like literally across the bridge from McKeesport like if you walk, it’s like an hour walk, like a 30-minute walk, and it’s just like, I seen a lot happen in McKeesport. I have done a lot of McKeesport. It was just for my safety. It was time for me to just, like, move, like go stay with my mom. ‘Cause I used to always stay with my grandma. There was always kids over there and things like that. Like kids my age and stuff like that. So it’s always over McKeesport or I was always, you know,  with people, but it was no good for me. Like, it was really depressing in McKeesport. It was just time for me to just go. 

Jourdan: What would reduce the violence in McKeesport amongst people your age?

Brandi: If more activities and programs was in McKeesport and more kids were more active.

Jourdan: So why aren’t there as many programs as there needs to be in McKeesport to keep kids on the straight and narrow, doing something with their time, motivated, stopping them or encouraging them not to be violent?

Brandi:  McKeesport is not the same no more. Back then, there was all the kids wanted to go to the Boys and Girls Club. All the kids wanted to go to the rec. All the kids wanted to go to the after-school program. It’s not like that no more.

Jourdan: Why don’t they want to go?

Brandi: It’s just like kids don’t feel safe, like kids hardly feel safe at school, like kids don’t feel safe. Nowhere for kids don’t feel like a whole lot of people don’t feel safe. Nowhere in McKeesport, I know even adults don’t feel safe in McKeesport.

Jourdan: Why aren’t those people like, man, I’m done with this. I’m gonna go to the Boys and Girls Club?

Brandi: Because they don’t feel safe. They’re scared something’s gonna happen. After everything that happened in McKeesport, like shootings, kidnappings, it’s not the same in McKeesport no more. How it was like, people don’t feel safe in McKeesport no more.

Jourdan: So, in your opinion, how can adults learn how violence starts, exists, happens between teens? What should they do to understand it? Where could they go to understand it? What should they intake to understand it?

Brandi: Talk to teens. I feel like they should, um, talk to parents and talk to, like, actually talk to teens that’s actually involved with that, that kind of stuff. And then kids like know people that’s involved in that kind of stuff, but they’re pretty much sure everybody knows some, some, a couple of people involved with that stuff. Like they’re like, it’s just like these kids can be, it’s like they can actually sit down and talk about these things, but they choose not to because they feel like it’s not gonna change nothing. But you don’t know that. You don’t know that until you actually sit down and try. 

Brandi: Me and my mom, I talk about my mom about this stuff all day, basically all day, every day. I talk about this to my grandma. My grandma, she’s the older person and she like, she even tells me like, some of this stuff isn’t the same from back then. Whenever she was our ages and stuff like that, my mom said the same thing.

Like everybody, basically, a lot of people got along and if they didn’t like that person, they never talked to that person.

Brandi: They should talk about the violence. They should talk about what happened. These, the kids, they should just talk about how they’re acting. Like get it all out there. 

Brandi: Just get it out there. Because I feel like nobody do either way. No kids or no parents. No one never talks about this kind of stuff. Like I don’t see nobody talking, I don’t hear nobody talking about this stuff. Like I just posted on my story. Nobody don’t like to talk about things like this. It’s like sometimes there’s kids that actually want to talk about these things.

Brandi: There’s actually kids that go through depression because of things like this. Like, it’s like ‘cause they can’t, they don’t feel safe going out. They wanna go out, but they can’t feel safe.  Every day. I’m just, I’m sitting around like, anything can happen any second, any minute, anything can happen. Just throughout the day.

Jourdan: If you’re in that environment where things can just happen randomly, I guess my question is like, how much control do you have over your safety?

Brandi: I feel like I don’t have that much control because I feel like if something happens to me, I wouldn’t know what to do. I would just be shocked. I would be scared. I don’t, I wouldn’t know if to run, to stay, I wouldn’t know what to do.

Jourdan: Which is normal in scary situations like that, that you haven’t been prepared for. You know, if nobody’s saying like, you know how like there’s a fire drill at school and you know what to do when there’s a fire. Is there like a drill when it comes to like violence in your neighborhood?

Brandi: No, there’s not. 

Jourdan: Should there be? 

Brandi: Yes, there should be. 

Brandi: We have a school social worker and they, I’m not gonna lie, like if something does happen like that, they say like there’s counseling for all week… But no, they shouldn’t do that. They should go to kids, sit down in the cafeteria every lunch period while the kids are eating, sit down every lunch period, and talk.

Jourdan: So you’re saying that the people who are in school, instead of saying our doors are open, you could come to us, they should go to the kids and start the conversation. Go to the students?

Brandi: Mm-hmm.

Jourdan: OK. So what else would be a part of that drill? 

Brandi: I feel like they can have more police officers involved.

Jourdan: OK. 

Brandi: The police officers that are already in school, but there needs to be more police officers in school to deal with the stuff that the teachers are dealing with.

Jourdan: What else do you feel? Should y’all spend more time outside so y’all can like process y’all feelings?  

Brandi: There should be one class to talk about violence, one class to talk about drugs and things like, stuff like that. They avoid all of that. But that’s one class they really need. In every school, not even McKeesport, every school. 

Jourdan: Is there a best way or best ways or something that you could do that would keep kids from either getting hurt or hurting other people outside of like after-school programs? Like, I know for in my neighborhood, it’s like at a certain age nobody had no confidence. So like nobody, everybody wanted to be hard. 

Brandi: I think that’s how it is now. They say they’re not scared, but in their heart and in their head, they’re terrified. Like, they’re like, this is about to happen to me. This is about to happen to me. Like, they’re scared for dear life, but they’re just not trying to show it, you know?

Jourdan: What do you hope will happen from you talking about violence and your experiences living in McKeesport and trying to do good in McKeesport? What do you want to happen after talking to us about that on this podcast?

Brandi: I think that I want the school to listen to this. I want parents to listen to this. I wanna see if people actually start talking about these types of things. But if not, then I’m gonna bring it up. Like I’m gonna plan something and have parents and children meet up and say, y’all can’t leave this alone. You gotta talk about, you gotta talk to your kids about this every day. You don’t give up talking to them about this kind of stuff because like even ‘cause there’s some kids that actually don’t have parents also. And like they’re terrified in things like this, too, and that’s why they’re doing violence and stuff like that. And that’s why I also want to get a whole bunch of McKeesport kids together and talk about this and do this ‘cause things ain’t going to get better in McKeesport if this kind of stuff keeps happening. So I really want people to actually sit down, listen to what we’re saying and actually talk.

Thanks for listening. Season four of From the Source podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Story editing, sound design and mixing by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Production. We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn about how you can share your story with us or nominate a young person ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to jourdan@publicsource.org. PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find all of our storytelling and reporting at PublicSource.org. I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

The post Brandi’s antidote to teen gun violence | S4, Ep. 9 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In this conversation, Reach Cyber Charter School sophomore Ja’Nya Coleman discusses how she views the paths to career success outside of attending college post-graduation, and how virtual learning, mentors and bad TV shows helped her realize her passion for storytelling and find a creative community.

TRANSCRIPT 

Jourdan: Let’s take a trip. 

Jourdan: It’s 3 p.m. You’re just getting in from a long day of school work and socializing at High School, USA. You drop your bags at the door, take off your shoes, and go straight into the kitchen to grab a snack. You know, a bowl of cereal, a couple of bags of Funyuns, leftover pizza, pierogies, noodles. You know, something light. You run upstairs, stretch out across your bed or sit in your favorite chair and turn on the television and immerse yourself into your favorite show. For me, it was the Tyra Banks Show. For 10th grader Jan’ya Coleman, her enjoyment of television and movies goes far beyond her just watching it. She’s studying it. Inside the Carnegie Library on a very wet Pittsburgh afternoon in Squirrel Hill, I learned how the isolation of the pandemic and pandemic era, learning bad TV shows, a colorful imagination and supportive family and friends all led Ja’Nya to take her artistry and passion for storytelling seriously and empowered her to take her future into her own hands and blaze her own trail. I’m Jourdan Hicks and this is From the Source. Meet Jan’ya Coleman. 

Ja’Nya: My name is Ja’Nya Coleman. I am in 10th grade. I go to Reach Cyber Charter School, and I live in Penn Hills. I live with my mom, my dad, my two brothers and my sister, and my dog. 

Jourdan: What’s your dog’s name? 

Ja’Nya: Karma. She is a Rottweiler. Very babyish. 

Jourdan: A big Rottweiler, or like a baby Rottweiler? 

Ja’Nya: She’s big, but she thinks she’s really small. 

Jourdan: I think it’s so funny when dogs do that and it’s like, look at yourself. You’re not small. 

Ja’Nya: She jumps on me and she’s like, on my shoulders. Like, very, like, you’re heavy. 

Jourdan: In her spare time. Ja’Nya likes to bake. Mostly cookies and cakes. 

Ja’Nya: Because I use, like, a piping bag. 

Jourdan: What’s your favorite flavor of cake? 

Ja’Nya: Has to be even, no, chocolate? No chocolate. No, wait. I’m tripping myself up. You know what? Vanilla or chocolate. 

Jourdan: Okay. Ja’Nya’s a daydreamer, a big thinker, a fantasizer or escapist, idealist. Were you a big make believe person? 

Ja’Nya: Yes. 

Jourdan: Did you have an imaginary friend? 

Ja’Nya: Yes. 

Jourdan: Tell me all about it. 

Ja’Nya: His name was Philip. I don’t know why. And I would make it like our pretend brother, before I had a brother. And I used to say to my sister, like, Hey, maybe we should ask her brother Philip. It was so weird. Very weird. 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya considers herself a storyteller, which is why she’s especially excited about the new creative outlet she’s found. 

Ja’Nya: Yes. I do the WQED Film Academy. So we’re learning, like, about pre-production, and production, post-production, editing, filming, scriptwriting. So pretty much all of it. 

Jourdan: The Film Academy is an 11-week course that supports diverse storymakers and filmmakers in Southwestern Pennsylvania by teaching them the basics of digital media arts: storytelling, camera, audio, lighting, and editing. The curriculum is more than 100 hours of hands-on and collaborative learning and uses the latest digital media technology to help filmmakers and storytellers achieve their creative ideas. 

Ja’Nya: No clue. 

Jourdan: No clue. Just like jump in feet first and we’ll see what happens. 

Ja’Nya: Yeah. 

Jourdan: That’s really brave of you. 

Ja’Nya: I was shocked myself. 

Jourdan: So what are your plans post-graduation? 

Ja’Nya: So once I graduate, I want to go to college for film and media. I want to do, like, directing, like scriptwriting plus, too, like the production. 

Jourdan: What shows are you watching now? 

Ja’Nya: So I started watching Adventure Time again, just have something. I just finished The Watcher. What else? I’ve watched the show called on Netflix called Heartbreak High, and I just spent, in between, I’ve watched RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Jourdan: Same. 

Ja’Nya: All Stars, I’ve been watching.

Jourdan: Yes.  Ja’Nya also shares a guilty pleasure with her mom. 

Ja’Nya: She like watches soap operas. 

Jourdan: Like Days of Our Lives? 

Ja’Nya: The Young and the Restless. 

Jourdan: Yes. 

Ja’Nya: It’s like, I’m admitting this, but like, I watch it with her. It’s like the other day I got upset and I told her to stop watching it because I got mad at the character. 

Jourdan: Not only has the Film Academy helped Ja’Nya figure out a career path, it’s also helped her connect with her peers in a way that’s been difficult for her in recent years. When did you leave public school? 

Ja’Nya: It was the start of COVID. 

Jourdan: Mhm. Okay. So you left specifically because of COVID? 

Ja’Nya: Yeah. 

Jourdan: Okay. And so do you prefer homeschool over going to school physically? 

Ja’Nya: I do. There’s like some things that I miss out on that I wish I could have. Like having a homecoming would be, like, pretty cool, or like having more friends to talk to cause all the people are virtual. You can’t give out your social media to talk and stuff. 

Jourdan: You can’t?  That’s a rule? 

Ja’Nya: It’s like a liability. 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya found out about the Film Academy through her school and first joined at what they call the learning level in 2021. Because of COVID, the sessions were held virtually. After that, she went back as an intern in person where they jumped right into filming the first day. 

Jourdan: She’s now a leader among the Film Academy students, as a paid member of the WQED Teen Film Crew. She and her colleagues pitch and produce their own work and take on client work. They’ve gotten super close over the years. 

Jourdan: Yeah. Have you found your tribe? Do you feel like? 

Ja’Nya: Yeah. 

Jourdan: Who’s your tribe? Who’s your friends? Let’s shout them out. 

Ja’Nya: I have friends, I met them through the film program. So there’s Sydney, Dornan and a friend of mine, Luke. We’re all, like, really good friends. We all, like, walk out together. So. Yeah. 

Jourdan: Yeah. Like you’re little homies. I was gonna say Three Musketeers, but it’s more than three of y’all. Your Musketeer crew. 

Ja’Nya: Yeah, We’re really good friends. 

Jourdan: And what do you think it is that makes you friends? Is it the interest in storytelling, in production, because you’re in the project, or is it like other things that kind of support that and motivate that? 

Ja’Nya: I think sometimes we can be a little sarcastic. We kind of think of the same things and like we work together a lot. Which kind of made us all bond and we like have a weird sense of humor together, that only kind of we get. 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya’s friend group, her mentors and the skills she’s learning at the Film Academy all have given her more confidence to be herself. 

Ja’Nya: I was like really shy, but now it’s like kind of takes me a little while to open up, but I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress. 

Jourdan: What do you think’s helped you to make that progress? 

Ja’Nya: Having like, supportive people help me open up. Like having a teaching artist to help me, like, speak up a little bit. Because it used to be like, Ja’Nya, your goal today is to speak up. Then I’ll be like I used to, like, talk like, [whispers] I don’t know. And I’m like, now I’m, like, able to talk louder. 

Jourdan: It feels good to be seen and recognized by the people that you like, you enjoy spending time with. One of the things Ja’Nya and her friends discuss is whether they plan to go to college after they graduate high school. 

Ja’Nya: I have a friend that says that they don’t want to go to college and stuff, but they still want to have like a job maybe around film. And you can still have opportunities. And I have some of my other friends who are like, they want to go to college for like the same thing I want to do. So it’s kind of like mixed. 

Jourdan: Are there any specific reasons that they’re giving you to why they do or don’t want to go? 

Ja’Nya: One of the reasons is just like going through school again, like school, like, subjects, doing work is like such a, maybe, like exhausting thing. And that’s hard. 

Jourdan: Yeah. Especially when you know what you want to do. And it’s like, why do I have to take this elective on science if I know I want to do something that’s not science-related? 

Ja’Nya: Yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of pressure that you should go to college, you should do this, you should. That you should maybe, like, let someone make their own choice and like their own path because you don’t have to go to college to make lots of money because a lot of like college students, they drop out their first semester and stuff and they make a career out of things. That kind of shows you that college, you can go to college, but you still have those opportunities. 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya says her decision to go to college is her own, and that her parents have never pressured her. 

Ja’Nya: So their thing is, like you can go to college if you want and stuff, but you don’t have to. They’ll help you’re way through. And my sister, something she once did, she did, since my sister’s older. So she went. She’s like going to college to be a veterinarian. So that’s something she wanted to do. So you’re like, weigh your options, like, kind of what do you feel? 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya is looking at Point Park University and Robert Morris University, and she continues to work on her skills and portfolio through the Film Academy. She’s even written her own short film. 

Ja’Nya: So I am working on this project. So it’s called Heartbreaker. It’s like this reality TV show about like a couple that broke up and they go on this show and they talk about all the crazy scenarios that happen. 

Jourdan: Ja’Nya hopes that by sharing her story, her peers will be inspired to step out of their comfort zone and decide to try new things, learn new skills, new hobbies and embrace the things that make them them. Be curious, be courageous, and unafraid of your own potential. Ja’Nya’s golden rule? Follow the opportunities. For her, it’s pursuing a career in film in a traditional way, studying, creating and attending college. For you, it may be starting your own business, monetizing your presence on social media, going to trade school or working a job until you figure it out. Your path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. Trust that you can create the life that you want and find the opportunities that will help you to build it. 

Thanks for listening. Season four of From the Source podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Story editing, sound design and mixing by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Production. We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn about how you can share your story with us or nominate a young person ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to jourdan@publicsource.org. PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You can find all of our storytelling and reporting at PublicSource.org. I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

The post Inside Ja’Nya’s film lab: How a 10th grader is scripting her future, her way | S4, Ep. 8 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In this episode of From the Source, Ambyr Clay discusses her experiences as a preteen coming of age in the era of police misconduct and protests captured on cell phone video and distributed widely on social media. Ambyr shares her observations on what her peers think about policing and the opportunity she sees for teens and police to have relationships that are beneficial to the community. 

TRANSCRIPT 

Jourdan Hicks:  I am your host, Jourdan Hicks. This is the From The Source podcast. In this episode, eighth grader Ambyr Clay addresses her peers, parents and law enforcement on her ideas for improving what the public knows about policing and for improving teen and police relations. 

She discusses her experiences as a preteen coming of age in the era of cell phones, police misconduct, protests, TikTok and Instagram.

Ambyr shares her observations on what her peers are thinking about policing, the opportunity she sees for teens and police to have relationships that are beneficial to communities and her experiences being the daughter of a police officer. 

A note before we begin: This episode includes discussion of violence and acts of fatal negligence. Discretion is advised for when you listen, where you listen and who you listen with.

Ambyr Clay: My name is Ambyr Clay. I’m in eighth grade at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School. 

Jourdan: Ambyr lives with her mom, dad and younger brother .Ambyr is an artist and enjoys spending time outdoors. 

Ambyr: Uh, I like the smell a lot and like the scenery, like the plants and flowers. My favorite color is green, so I like seeing all the different shades of greens.

Jourdan: At Lincoln Park, Ambyr studies writing and publishing as an arts major. Are your parents like creative people, like performance kind of people, or is it just you?

Ambyr: Yeah. My, uh, dad, he went to like an arts college, so he, he has a good eye for it. 

Jourdan: Ambyr says she and her dad connect over art because he went to an arts college and she loves to create art in her free time.

When they spend time together, they do a lot of family stuff, like going on vacations, going out to eat, going to the movies. Dad is really, really silly and goofy, which makes it fun for Ambyr and her brother, Keegan. 

Ambyr: Having a police officer as a dad makes me happy and proud, but sometimes I have some fears.

I sometimes fear that one day something will happen to him. I won’t see him again. It makes me happy that he is protecting others, but I wonder who protects him when he is protecting others.

Jourdan: But there’s one topic Ambyr is cautious to engage in. 

News clip: The Los Angeles Police Department has released body cam footage showing its officers tasing Keenan Darnell Anderson.

On Jan. 3, police say Anderson, a teacher and father, died at a hospital after he suffered a medical emergency about four hours after he was arrested. 

News clip: Turning to another story that we have been following all evening, the death of Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntyre. He was shot and killed late this afternoon in a confrontation with a suspect. That suspect was later killed in a shootout in Pittsburgh 

Jourdan: Two years ago, when Ambyr was 11 years old, George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer made international news. It’s hard for her to remember a time before having to have uncomfortable conversations about policing, discrimination and racism.

When the media picks up stories involving officer-related shootings or police fatalities, Ambyr knows there’s a chance the topic of policing may make it into her lunchroom discussions. Her father is a police officer. It’s something Ambyr and her family are very proud of and something she doesn’t share with just anybody.

Do you typically tell people your, your dad is a police officer or are you private with that information? 

Ambyr: With, like, my friends and stuff, I’ll, like, I’ve told them that like my dad’s a police officer and stuff. If I feel like I need to bring it up, I’ll bring it up, but like if I don’t feel like it needs to be brought up in the moment or this person doesn’t really need to know that information then, like I won’t, most of the time I don’t think about it. Sometimes I won’t share that information. Like, not really that’ll put me in danger, but like, it’ll make like the situation like uncomfortable ’cause I know not a lot of people like to talk about that topic.

Jourdan: So we have three groups that we’re gonna talk about. We’re gonna talk about your peers, people who are your age, young adults, teens. Then we’re gonna talk about some of the things your dad has experienced and some of the things that he shared about being a police officer. Then we’re also gonna get your personal opinion, as someone who’s in the middle, who’s both a young person and who has someone who they live with, that they love, who is a police officer.

So let’s start with your friends and people who are your age. What would you say are some common beliefs that your peers think are true or, um, hold about police officers. Like how are they talking about them? What do they think about them? What are they, what are they saying?

Ambyr:  So I talked to my friends at lunch about this question to get some of their opinions and some of the things like were, um, that cops should get more education on mental health. A lot of teens think that cops are bad because, um, of what they hear or see on social media and that they, there should be some like stricter rules on who should be like a cop.

Jourdan: OK, so there should be stricter rules on who can be a police officer, that police officers need more training to be able to deal with issues in the public that aren’t criminal in nature. Then the third is that police officers are seen as bad or untrustworthy. 

Jourdan: Ambyr values police officers for the protection they provide to vulnerable people and vulnerable communities. She believes without police officers. The public loses access to helpers who respond to conflict, violence, and lawlessness.

Ambyr: Yes. I think police officers are useful because without them, like the world will just go into chaos because no one’s like stopping people from like doing wrong. If we didn’t have police officers, there would be, like, not really protection. We’d have to mostly rely on ourselves to protect us when not everyone can do that.

Jourdan: Ambyr’s at the age where she’s beginning to develop her moral compass and the foundation for her beliefs about the world, which like most of us are inspired first by our family and our community.

Jourdan: What types of interactions have you had with police? What do you see police doing in your neighborhood?

Ambyr: So at my school, we actually have two police officers that stand around and well, like, I see, um, cops doing like standing there and making sure that, like, we’re safe until like they need to step in to help us. Normally when I see, like, police at my house, they’re just, um, driving around and like making sure nothing bad’s going on, or like, sometimes they’ll go to a house by me if someone’s like hurt or something. I haven’t really seen anyone go to a house where someone was doing, like, something bad there. 

Jourdan: Give me the characteristics of your ideal police officer. 

Ambyr: Someone who will, like, respect and want to do the job to protect and serve their community, to do what’s right and like someone who will be OK to step in to, like, an argument or step into danger knowing that they’re there to help.

Jourdan: So brave, understanding and ready to help. 

Ambyr: Yeah. 

Jourdan: What type of police officer do you hope that your dad is to people? 

Ambyr: I hope he’s one that is like doing what’s right and is treating people with, like, equal respect and equality. 

Jourdan: Have you and your dad had conversations about his work as a police officer 

Ambyr: sometimes?

Jourdan: What things have you talked about?

Ambyr: That cops should get more education on mental health. Because my dad said like one outta every 15 calls that he gets deals with mental health cases, and they didn’t really learn about that. So for like police academies, I think there they should have lessons about mental health and like with teens because my dad said they didn’t when he was in police academy, they didn’t really even talk about that that much.

I definitely say like the George Floyd  that I realized that there are some police officers out there, they’ll sign up and like train to be a police, but not actually do what’s right or not, ike, respect people with, like, equality. I have a vague memory of, like, him telling us about it and telling us how like not all police officers are like that.

There wasn’t really a way that we could, like, check to make sure that the cops that people hire are, are gonna do their job correctly. I think so far that my, like, thought about police is like where it needs to be. I think like down the line, I’ll learn more about police that may \ change that opinion and may, like, alter how I see policing.

Jourdan: Is there anything specifically in your mind that you would like to learn more about or you feel like you will learn more about as you get older?

Ambyr: Stuff I’d like to learn more about is what they do in training and like what’s the actual requirements and like what tests they need to go through to be certified as a police officer.

Jourdan: Ambyr says everyone is going to have to interact with police at some point, and teens should be prepared. She says it’s on parents and schools to give kids solid information upon which to base their own opinions. 

Jourdan: So, educators and schools to be more, can be more prepared toalk about issues and things that have to do with policing and stuff.

Ambyr: Parents should talk about like what’s the correct way to respond to an interaction with the police and like answer their, like, if they have questions like, how to answer them with the most respect and that if you feel unsafe, that it’s OK to ask to  call your parents, especially if you’re a teenager or it’s OK to like record if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. 

Jourdan: By the same token, Ambyr thinks police should educate themselves about. 

Ambyr: Cops should listen to this because some may not know how teens feel about policing and by listening to this, they’ll, they can get like a good understanding on why some teens may act like this around them or like why some may feel this way.

Jourdan: Encounters with police can be stressful and they can escalate fast. There are local organizations like A.P.A, the Alliance for Police Accountability, the local ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union chapter, and 1Hood that offer programs and explainers on what the law requires of you when you’re encountering police and strategies for handling police interactions. You can visit their websites by clicking the links we’ve provided in the transcript for this episode. 

Joudan: Thanks for listening. 

Season four of From The Source Podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Story editing, sound design and mixing by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions.

We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn how you can share your story with us, or nominate a young person, ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to jourdan@publicsource.org.

PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pa. You can find all of our reporting and storytelling at Publicsource.org. 

I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

The post This preteen is proud of her police officer dad, and also has ideas for better policing | S4, Ep. 7 appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In this episode, five Pittsburgh high school students from Girl Scout Troop 55286 discuss the uncomfortable truths about climate change and environmental justice activism for teens — and how their peers and parents can help raise awareness.

TRANSCRIPT 

Jourdan Hicks: They could be recycling your Christmas tree right now. Or perhaps researching the link between palm oil extraction and trefoil cookies. But on one recent wintry day, five Pittsburgh High School students who make up Troop 55286 sat with me to discuss the urgency of climate change in their teen lives and for their future. At the Carnegie Library-East Liberty Branch, Amalia, Lucy, Lilliana, Quill and Grace are environmental activists. They act in defense of the resources on planet Earth that impact your quality of life. 

Jourdan: I’m Jourdan Hicks and this is From the Source. Most of these young people have had a close relationship with environmental concepts and climate justice conversations since they were kids. 

Quill Boyle: I’m Quill. I go to Obama and I’m in 11th grade. Something that partially got me into it is just my dad. He’s a big environmental activist. Both my parents are big activists. I think he was like one of the people who started the CCL chapter, Citizen’s Climate Lobby. He just has talked about climate change a lot, so it’s just kind of like something that was partially there growing up. I think climate justice is like trying to keep our planet alive and making sure that everything that is in danger is safe. 

Jourdan: Quill volunteers with two environmental justice groups, Pittsburgh Youth Climate Action and the Pittsburgh Youth Climate Coalition. 

Quill: This year it’s definitely a lot more youth leading the group conversation and getting stuff happening a little bit more. It was made by students for students. It’s mainly like connecting each environmental club in high schools, mainly to like, kind of like work together and create a space to support each other in the things that we’re doing as schools. To create a protest in Pittsburgh, to make sure that we were holding those officials accountable and stuff. 

Grace Glowczewski: I’m Grace. I go to CAPA and I’m a senior. I definitely got into environmental justice because of my parents, especially my mom. I’ve always been vegetarian not only because I’m sad about animals, but because it’s so bad for the environment. 

Jourdan: Grace’s mom, Elizabeth, is the group’s leader. 

Grace: So like every decision that my mom has made has been so conscious and good about being environmentalists on all fronts, like the personal front and the lobbying and everything about that. And also Girl Scouts, like we’ve been just taught to love our Earth so much. Like we go on hikes and, and like that has just been so ingrained into my childhood and like who I am. The Earth means a lot to me on a personal level. So that means like I will go to lengths to protect it. As youth, this is a particularly important issue because we are the most affected by it, but we have the least say in it. We are not able to go into Congress and make laws. We are not able to vote, most of us. We’re not able to buy our own groceries and make sure we’re getting organic foods. We’re not able to put solar panels on our bodies. Like we are only able to have conversations and educate ourselves. And I feel like as we get older, it’s our responsibility to educate younger people. 

Lilliana Watling: I’m Lilliana. I go to City of Bridges and I’m in 12th grade. I guess in a nutshell, it’s just like you’re defending the environment because the people that are in charge of the laws that are being made in the world that we live in don’t really seem to think about the fact that if they make the mistakes or like the decisions that they continue to make and they act like basically like the world is this kind of like stress ball that they can just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and it will just go back to normal — that’s not how it works. Like the more that you kind of, I guess, squeeze the earth for its resources, those resources will not come back and there will be consequences that, like, we cannot come back from, and environmental justice is people just trying to make that known and trying to get people to listen to us, basically. 

Lucy Stewart: I’m Lucy. I’m in 11th grade and I go to City of Bridges high school. A big part of environmental justice is holding massive corporate polluters responsible. We have a history of that in Pittsburgh. It is possible just looking at Pittsburgh’s history. So yeah, a big point for me in environmental justice is that holding corporate polluters responsible. 

Grace: As a Girl Scout troop, basically we decided that we felt uncomfortable selling Girl Scout cookies because they had palm oil in them that were from an unsustainable source. And palm oil is a huge reason why deforestation happens in the Amazon. And we were originally concerned about orangutan lives, but not only orangutans are being affected by it. So it seems like a huge issue. Like we went to Girl Scouts and we were like, this is something we are not comfortable supporting, but instead of just deciding not to sell, that would make a very small impact. But we went to Girl Scouts and we were like: This is the problem. Like this is the solution. And like, we want to see change. 

And although nothing has actually happened yet, there are still people, like we mobilized Girl Scouts around the country and kind of got the issue out there, proposed a solution. So we’re creating sustainable change. 

Jourdan: Still, the challenge of climate change feels monumental when you are 16, 17, 18 years old and staring down a future of rising sea levels and extreme weather. 

Lilliana: With environmental justice, it definitely feels like there’s not a lot you can do. And even with, like, letter-writing and protest, it still doesn’t feel like there’s a lot that you can do or like a lot that you can actually accomplish. Which isn’t fun for sure, but all you can do in trying to be an environmental activist is do your best. I think something that a lot of people end up focusing on is like, oh, if you do, if you stop littering and throw your trash away or if you start recycling and being conscious about that, then you’re going to make a big difference when it’s like, oh, that’s only one person, and we shouldn’t really be shaming people for choices that it might be their only choice in order to do that. Like. It’s definitely not an individual issue. But like companies, companies and policy-makers need to be better about what they’re doing. Something that we can do is try our best to influence those companies and lawmakers. 

Jourdan: When teens think about climate change, they feel anxious, afraid and helpless. That’s according to an EdWeek Research Center survey published in December, where teens were presented with a list of 11 emotions ranging from angry to optimistic to uninterested and asked  to select all the emotions they associate with climate change and the effects. Lilliana says with everything else going on in the world, teens have to compartmentalize. 

Lilliana: So that you’re not thinking about it 24/7 because a lot of times what I think will happen is that people will hear about this issue and they’ll get so bogged down by it that they just won’t even try and look at all that. There’s nothing I can do, so why do anything at all. So it’s one of those things where it’s you have to able to think about it, but it cannot eat up all of your day because then you’ll just end up being, like, really sad and like, I don’t know, it’s like, it’s not productive. Your depression is not productive. So simply smile. 

Amalia: I agree with Lilliana in saying that what people are saying is that a lot of the responsibility for where our environment is at now is like big companies and corporations. And then when you are an individual, it feels like you can’t do anything. But instead of just kind of leaving it up to them, unfortunately, it’s kind of you have to take matters into your own hands and not by yourself. Also, the greatest thing with the palm oil, we were able to start a group and talk to people around the world. And so, like changing your toothbrush might not be that big of a change personally, but it’s like if a lot of people do that or if a lot of people are aware of an alternative or choose an alternative, it makes a larger impact and then corporations will notice more. 

Jourdan: I feel like we’re all complicit in something like, I don’t know where this T-shirt was made. I got it at Target. I feel like, I don’t know, Target. I don’t know if it was sourced sustainably or not. I have no clue. 

Lucy: We all have, I think, big opinions on this topic specifically about fashion and what it is like. I think that I think the biggest thing is like not about, like, where you’re consuming from, but how much you are consuming. Like back to the thing where, like, people were buying from things like that that fit their lifestyle, it fits their budget. There’s a lot of classism, I think, in environmental justice and  I think the thing to look at is like how much you’re consuming, I guess more where you’re buying from.

Amalia: I kind of disagree with you. I mean, I agree with the like how much you’re consuming and the amount is definitely an issue. But I think you’re right. It’s like a very classist issue. And people who can afford cheap high end if that’s where they can get a lot of clothing, that’s where they want to buy, right? And then rich people can buy from brands where they have clothing that lasts longer. See, they’re not throwing it away, but it’s not available to everyone. Then it seems like I can’t afford like a really nice, sustainable brand because the shirt is $200 and it’s just like a cycle. So I’m not really sure how. 

Lilliana: And I think of people like Gwyneth Paltrow who are very like, oh, like I am this like hippie of the Earth, like I love crystals and like, I would never hurt the Earth when it’s like you’re literally charging like $60 for, like, products that, l don’t know how you source them, but like it’s a little bit like it’s good that there are these people who are like saying online, like, oh, I support this issue, but most of the time there isn’t any action behind that and they’re getting like a lot of credit and it’s good because like people are more aware of it, but it’s also like the people that should be at the head of this should be the people that are actually like doing things, making changes, and that are also showing other people how they can make change in a way that is more realistic for their lives, if that makes sense. 

Amalia: The way we find our views is on our social media and through political ads. I think that’s a very skewed way of looking at it. 

Lucy: Yes. 

Amalia: And kind of you’re fed opinions. I think the way we should do it is that we learn these things and then create a community of it. 

Lucy: I completely agree because I think social media and like TikTok and like other short-form content, it does not allow us to think critically enough about this stuff. 

Lilliana: What Lucy and Amalia were saying, is TikTok and Instagram, like, they are good for raising awareness, but it’s not really the best for educating you about like certain issues because it is a lot of, ‘The world is going to end in like two years type of stuff.’ A lot of the stuff that is posted on TikTok and Instagram about climate change is definitely useful and I like follow accounts that talk about it, but I think it’s also one of those things where it is more base level and it’s for people who are just beginning. I think there’s like, as you continue going, you learn that like this is a very multifaceted issue. There are a lot of things going on. It’s one of those things where it’s very easy for brands and people like that to be like, oh yeah, we’re for environmental justice. They’ll say things, and it’s like oh, this is great. I can support them now, but you have to also like being in, like doing work and being in environmental justice. It does take quite a bit of time because you do have to do research on certain things and like where you’re getting like certain things from and like that is a hard thing to do and it takes a lot of time. 

Amalia: I think we have this kind of view on climate justice and climate change as a very opinionated and political thing where it has a [political] party or whatever. Media you consume, you get a certain view on climate change or whatever party you associate with or like city you live in, you have this view of climate change. I think educating is such an important thing when it comes to making people feel empathetic for other people. Even just having a class about how it affects other people would be so helpful because then you’re not forcing yourself to consume it, but you have to do that in an education curriculum. It teaches people about it instead of making them search it out for themselves. 

Lilliana: Can I just say something really quickly? So, at Obama, I don’t want to name the teacher, so I’m not gonna. There is a science teacher at our school who does not believe in climate change. He’s a science teacher. 

Grace: As we get older, it’s our responsibility to educate younger people and I’m seeing like my teachers are starting like they’re coming into the generation where they’re educated. Like my government teacher had us learn about the ways to sue the government. We watched a documentary on these 21 plaintiffs suing the government. We learn so much about the government, but we also learned so much about environmental justice. That wasn’t the point of the lesson, but everyone in that room walked away with a new, like, perspective. So any type of education and conversation that we can have with our peers or with our teachers or with our parents, that is the biggest impact we can currently have. 

Lilliana: I know with my parents, like I talk with them and I have like conversations with them, and if they were just sitting me down like telling me like, you need to care about this… The adults need to be open to hearing what kids have to say because it’s this thing that happens a lot where it’s like the people will be like, oh, we’re like, if you’re like worried about this, you should be doing something to change it. But then when we bring it up and we talk about it, they’re like, oh, you’re young, you don’t know what you’re talking about. So it’s this like if you want to be able to talk to younger generations or just like your own kid about what’s going on, you have to treat them with respect and like it’s a discussion and it’s not a lecture. 

Quill: I think with conversations between peers or like people maybe who are like older than you, but you’re talking to them about climate change, I think that it’s a very difficult conversation to have no matter who’s having it because it’s hard to convince someone. Oh, yeah. There’s unfortunately not a lot we can do, but you kind of have to try. It’s very hard to talk about climate change, like explaining it in, like, a personal way to someone when most of the personal ways are very discouraging. Like, it’s like if one way that you can connect with someone is that you know that they really like chocolate, for example, like this is a kind of a silly example, but also kind of not like because of climate change, I believe like chocolate might not be around Depending on like certain stages of climate change, I guess. So it’s just kind of like, oh yeah, chocolate won’t be around in a couple of years. Do you want to try to do something about it? It’s hard to connect with people when talking about climate change and they think like I don’t know the best way to talk to someone about it, but maybe just talking about the ways that you’re passionate about it. It’s hard to make it relevant to someone when the only relevant way is bad ways or like bad things that are going to happen. 

Jourdan: After my interview with Troop 55286, I walked away with the following:

Climate change is going to climate change. As long as there’s corporate-level reliance on the extraction and burning off of fossil fuels, we’re going to continue to see long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.

Having individual eco-friendly habits like recycling, turning off the lights when you’re not in a room, conserving energy, biking instead of driving — they’re helpful but not super impactful against the effects of global pollution, deforestation and CO2 production.

Jourdan: Environmental justice is a personal commitment to being woke about your personal contributions to climate change and facing the reality that people and companies not observing the needs of the environment are doing the most harm and making it harder for personal efforts to matter. It’s about sticking with it even in the face of future predictions for our planet.

There are countless organizations in our region who want to engage the public on issues of environmental justice, teens and adults. There’s Communitopia, Tree Pittsburgh, Green Building Alliance, Pittsburgh Youth Climate Action and Pittsburgh Youth Climate Coalition.

Parents can do their part by starting the conversation early. All the scouts were introduced to environmental justice at a young age and exposed as kids to what it meant to have a kind relationship with the planet and with the animals we share the planet with.

Doing so could set them up to be more conscious about environmentalism as they become adults.

Season four of From The Source Podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Story editing, sound design and mixing by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions.

We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn how you can share your story with us, or nominate a young person, ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to jourdan@publicsource.org.

PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pa. You can find all of our reporting and storytelling at Publicsource.org. 

I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

The post <strong>Teens fighting for a livable planet | S4, Ep. 6</strong> appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

We’re back in 2023! Here’s a preview of the next episode of From the Source.

TRANSCRIPT

Jourdan: Welcome to From the Source. I’m your podcast host, Jourdan Hicks. We’re taking a break to observe the holiday season, so there won’t be a new episode this week. You can check out past episodes from this season on PublicSource.org and Kidsburgh.org, and it’s also streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. We’re back Wednesday, Jan. 4. 

Next time on From the Source, Episode 6: 

Quill: There is a science teacher at our school who does not believe in climate change. He’s a science teacher. 

Jourdan: Scouts from Troop 55286 share how they became teen climate activists and why more teens aren’t engaged with environmental justice issues. 

Lucy: We are the most affected by it, but we have the least say in it. Like we are not able to go into Congress and make laws. We are not able to vote. Most of us were not able to put solar panels on our roofs. We are only able to have conversations and educate ourselves, and I feel like as we get older, it’s our responsibility to educate younger people. 

Quill: It’s hard to make it relevant to someone when the only relevant way is bad ways or like bad things that are going to happen. 

Liliana: Like, the people that are in charge of the laws that are being made act like basically like the world is this, like, stress ball that they can just squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and it will just go back to normal.

The post Teens Fighting for a Livable Planet | S4, Ep 6. Preview appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

For some young people, an intercultural exchange is rare and there is little consideration of why they are who they are. But for teens who immigrated or whose immediate family immigrated, it can be a major cornerstone of their experience and identity. This week, we speak with Pittsburgh Allderdice High School senior Sam Alawadhi on the challenge and gifts of having intersecting identities — as a Yemeni and an American — and what he thinks about his peers’ understanding of the concept of culture.

TRANSCRIPT

Sam: My name is Sam Alawadhi. I am a senior at Allderdice High School. Shout out, Allderdice! … I am Arab. I identify as Muslim, though I’m not the most religious.

I am a student. I am an immigrant, a first-generation immigrant. I am French born, but technically from Yemen. Yeah, so those are my identities. 

Jourdan: Think of Sam as a friend of a friend. Our guest from the previous episode, Amaya Doman, introduced him to From the Source. Sam and Amaya are in the same graduating class at Pittsburgh Allderdice. Amaya suggested Sam share his thoughts with us on the pressures that teen immigrants face.

I’m Jourdan Hicks. This is From the Source. 

Jourdan: Sam says teens have so much going on that it can be hard to recognize the impact of their intersecting identities, much less take pride in them.

Sam: I feel like it’s so easy for teens to kind of forget about it, especially with like the climate right now, like whether it’s political or whatever it is, it’s kind of easy to forget yourself and forget your roots and kind of be pressured to be the same and not stand out much.

So, yeah, I feel like because it’s, it’s so easy to happen to teenagers, especially because they’re still trying to figure out who they are. So it’s like a perfect time for others to just kind of be like, no, like, just be like everybody else. 

Jourdan: One subtle example of the way society ignores the Arab experience — those race and ethnicity questions on the census and college applications. 

Sam: On the census and U.S. government papers, you know, the place where you pick your race or ethnicity is always like, it’s white and then in parenthesis, like including Middle Eastern origin. And I’ve always thought that was so weird because yeah.

Like the Arab world, it’s very diverse. People come from Asia, from Africa, from Asia, uh, from Europe. There are like white Arabs, but it’s mainly because of like history and colonialism. 

Jourdan: Sam was born in Paris.  His dad, Hamid, worked as an UNESCO ambassador representing Yemen. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. His mom, Amat, worked as a teacher and social worker previous to the family moving to Paris.  Living in Paris, Sam’s world was naturally multicultural. Sam’s family moved back to Yemen when he was 3 years old. In 2014, civil war broke out in Yemen.

Sam: I remember the night that, like, I guess the war officially started, there had been tensions already. My sister got up and she took me out of bed and then we went down to the basement.

I remember this really bad night where everybody was just kind of huddled up. Because I was 9 I was like, I’m just going to sleep and hope for the best and wake up the next day fine, hopefully.

But yea, I’m here now, so…

I still like, to this day, I’m kind of like, I don’t wanna say desensitized, but every time somebody mentions it or like, says like, how has that impacted you? I don’t feel like I’ve had any major trauma from it. I’ve only grown from it. I feel like that’s a very big aspect of my life and I’d be lying if I said that’s not a big part of me. 

But the war, it’s the thing that made us come here and it’s kind of like my entire rest of my family is back in Yemen and I really want to go back and visit one day.

Jourdan: When they arrived in the U.S., they moved in with Sam’s aunt and uncle. Sam would have to help his parents integrate.

Sam: I think a lot of families, like, who came here maybe put the pressure on their children to know the society and become one with the society because the parents don’t know what’s going on. They need their kids to translate for them or they need kind of to teach them the culture here so they don’t look out of place.

Jourdan: The U.S. wasn’t quite like Sam expected it to be. 

Sam: Like you hear stories from people that came here like, oh, it’s the best place to immigrate. Like the American Dream is like this thing that I like. I remember when I came here, like the American dream was like a thing that I learned about. I was like, that’s so crazy. But now that I look at it, I’m like, why do people talk about the American dream?

You know? ’Cause it’s not. The idea is good, but like if you’re not of a specific race or you don’t look a certain way, it doesn’t work for you. You know? And you kind of have to make your own name here. You would have to do it regardless, but like there’s so, there’s so many battles that you kind of have to go through that you wouldn’t realize.

Like you think that like I used to think America was this oppression-free place like where bullying did not exist. Because I remember I was in school and I would like get bullied in Yemen and I’m like, oh my God, I can’t wait to go to America because like, that doesn’t happen in America. But it very much does and it’s kind of, it is like worse than it was in Yemen.

And I was like, so this is not what I thought it was. Yeah.

Jourdan: Sam says the pressure to be his Yemeni self and define his new self in America was a prominent concern for him.

Sam: When I first came here, to be honest, because I felt this pressure, like fifth grade especially, I’m like, I have to be like these people. These people are gonna think I’m a freak if I’m not like, like them. So I was, I was like, I hate Arab music and Arab food. And like now that I think about it, I’m like, Sam, that’s so, that’s so annoying.

Jourdan: Are there certain expectations of you as a male in Yemeni culture?

Sam: Oh yeah.

Jourdan: What are they?

Sam: So, Yemeni culture, in Arab culture as a whole, the man is more of like he goes out and works, gets the money, and the woman stays in the house and cleans and cooks and does this for his children.

Like for me, I’m supposed to be like the tough one, like the strong one that’s supposed to like pick up the water that we bought from Costco and take it up the driveway that’s like a 45-degree angle because of Pittsburgh. But that’s the expectation. It’s very much like old-fashioned, like what you would hear. Well, it still, it still happens now, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s, yeah, it’s very much old-fashioned. Like, oh, the man provides and does the things that are not easy for a woman to do, like socially, like if you think about it in a social construct way, I guess.

Jourdan: Does that fit for you?

Sam: I kind of challenge it sometimes, you know, like my parents, like, they hate the fact that I grew out my hair, but I grew out my hair ’cause I’m like, I like growing it out. 

Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Like, I don’t, I don’t hate doing the things that I just said, you know, ’cause like my parents, they only have me now ’cause my sisters are not like living with us anymore. 

But even like my family specifically, I’m not gonna lie, they’re, my parents are more open-minded, I’d say, than a lot of Arab people are because they treated me and my sisters the same.

Like if my sister can’t go out, like I can’t go out, and because me and my sisters have a huge age gap, we never like lived together to the point that we went out together. But like women in general in Arab society are, like, you stay in the house. Like you have to be modest and like not go out. You can’t go out. There’s like men on the streets, like all this kind of stuff, but my parents didn’t think about it like that. They were just kinda like, if Sulaf, my sister, can’t go out. Sam can’t go out.

Jourdan: Sam lives in Squirrel Hill with his parents and his on-again, off-again roommate Lola the Labrador. Sam watches Lola for his cousin sometimes. 

Sam: Yeah, so my house. If you walk in, you could just mistake it for like a normal American’s house, I’m not gonna lie. But there’s definitely music. I’ll say that my parents are always on like WhatsApp watching videos on max volume with, like, music. And there’s this one instrument called an oud, which is kind of like a guitar.

It’s like a bigger, more oval-shaped guitar. And it’s a very, it’s like a staple of Yemeni music. I hear it all the time and whenever we had a friend of my dad’s over, he would play an oud and it was, I love how it’s like, it’s very beautiful, so it’s very much like also a capella, kind of just like your voice kind of music that I hear throughout the house.

Jourdan: Growing up, Sam has often compared his family to other non-immigrant families he knows.

Sam: I feel like I’ve done so much to help them understand kind of like what’s going on. Like how do people think here? How do parents treat their kids here? And like I’m always comparing like American parents or parents of other cultures. I’m like, you know, like they let their kids do this. And like, even if I know like a friend of mine who has the same experience as me and their parents treat them differently, I’m like, you know, like, look, look at this parent and look how, you know, they handle this situation. And I feel like that’s kind of where my little kid mind comes out, you know, where I’m kind of like, please let me do this.

I feel like they’re very protective. My parents and I feel like their main focus for me especially, they’ve always wanted me to have a good education. That’s like the thing, that’s what they always talk to me about. We have like occasional talks where we just sit down and like, and they tell me about the main reason that they came here was obviously to escape the war, but also they want me to continue with the education that I have, and they’ve always supported me like academic-wise, and I feel like they did a pretty good job. … Like I’m where I am today. And I’m very proud of that. And I feel like I can’t say that without giving my parents like any credit because that’s like the main reason. 

So they’ve wanted me to focus on it so much that I feel like when I wanna do other things, I wanna do something, like, different that’s not very academically wise, you know, like skipping or like, things like that. They’re, they’re like, no. Like, absolutely not, not like, you’re not, you’re not gonna be like the American kids are like, we’re not gonna be that easy. Like, it’s not, you know, like they always, I always tell them, I’m like but you know, like this person’s parent let them do this. And then they’re like, well, we’re not those parents. Like, we’re not. And I’m like, oh well.

Jourdan: Why is education so important?

Sam: Because my dad has seen how the world changes. I feel like he’s realized how, you know, like technology’s taking over, like people are getting smarter and like AI is getting smarter.

And all these things that he hasn’t had before and his generation didn’t have access to. So I feel like he wants me to take advantage of those things because he can’t. And I wouldn’t say he like pressures me to do the things I do. Like I very much have a say in what I want to do. Like, he’s always, always, always reminding me like Sam, try this out.

Yes. And I feel like education is so important in my life because if I complete this college degree and get this job that I’ve always dreamed of and my parents have always dreamed of, it’s like they succeeded, like their life is now complete. Like that’s what they tell me all the time. That’s like what they say, they’re like, it’s like it’s worth it that they came here and the amount of things that they risked and the amount of things that they sacrificed for me to come here

Jourdan: Sam says sometimes it’s a lot of pressure, but that he genuinely wants to do the things that his parents also want for him. Like go to college, study computer science, get a decent job and do good in the world. 

Sam: I always wonder, I’m like, if I wasn’t like that, if I wasn’t very college-driven, like I didn’t want to go to college, I wanted to do like trade school or like some gap year or something like that, if I wasn’t that by myself, like what would my parents think?

And I, I don’t know what they would think now because like even if they didn’t tell me do that, if they said do whatever the hell you wanted to do since we came here, we don’t care what you do. I think I’d still be the same person that I am today, like academic-wise.

Jourdan: He’s taken about a dozen Advanced Placement level courses, U.S. history, English and French language and composition, and chemistry, just to name a few, but his favorite subject is math.

Sam: I used to not really like it that much, I think growing up, but getting into higher level math, it kind of just clicks for me sometimes, so I, I really enjoy it and it’s a very straightforward kind of subject, so it’s not anything that you can interpret in different ways, like English or history, for example, when there’s more than just one answer or ways that you interpret something. I feel like math is very much just yes or no answer, and I like that confirmation aspect of it. 

Jourdan: And he has a few academic awards under his belt. 

Sam: I’ve won academic high honor roll. I have AP Scholar, I have the Harvard Book award, which was awarded to me from a vote by the Allderdice faculty, I think for um, high scholar or something of that nature. And it’s, and it’s from the Harvard Alumni Association, I think. I think that’s all of them.

Jourdan: Sam is making himself proud and his parents proud. Not only through his academic achievements, but also through his efforts to give back. At Allderdice, Sam is involved in the Global Minds initiative. 

The Global Minds initiative was created to combat cultural intolerance and discrimination through after-school tutoring and discussion programs between English-as-second-language learners and native English-speaking students. It’s an educational and social support system encouraging NES students and ESL students to learn about each other’s cultures.

Sam: It’s kind of bringing ESL students with native English speakers, and we just kind of have a conversation about the difference in culture. If it’s a holiday, we talk about how this holiday is celebrated around the world, whether they celebrate it or not.

Jourdan: Sam is confident that his contributions to GMI are important, but sometimes there’s a performative aspect to advancing the cultural exchange activities that doesn’t sit well with him. Recruiting and incentivizing attending meetings — he’s not feeling it. 

Sam: There has to be this incentive that like brings people in that is completely unrelated. But that’s how you’re gonna get people. ’Cause that’s how it works. It kind of feels hard and forced to be like, oh guys, like there’s pizza, so come because realistically and unfortunately a lot of people don’t really care. 

Jourdan: Often, native English-speaking students aren’t curious, and ESL students are so immersed in their lives that they don’t wanna stop and share and teach, especially when a great majority of the discussions that these teens are tapped to share those experiences in — their perspectives on cultural exchange and identity — they’re usually for personal gain or some sort of access. Performing for a college admissions application, for awards, for recognition. That’s a part that does not sit well with Sam.

Sam:And like, I’m not gonna lie, like myself, like I’ll call myself out, like sometimes I fall for that kind of thing, and sometimes I’m like but wait, like I realize how important this is. And that’s why I try to go further. I’m very passionate about this thing because it’s made like for me because it’s ESL students and I’m like, I wanna, I wanna give ESL students what I didn’t have, I didn’t this kind of club when I was an ESL student. There’s these kind of conversations that I wanted to be able to give it back. Now that I am in a position where I speak fluent English and I am bilingual, almost trilingual, I think it became so much more important to me. And for some other people, they’re just in a position where it’s just like, it’s not as much for them.

Jourdan: Sam says the club provides community and solidarity and that learning other students’ immigration stories has helped him recognize his own advantages.

Sam: For sure. And I also think it kind of makes you think about your background in a way that’s like, they’re an immigrant, too, but they had such a harder time coming here than I did. And I think that’s so important to know because we’re, we’re not all the same. And even if you come from a different part of the world, like this person had to go through this country, to this country, to this refugee camp to this. And I didn’t have to go through that. And I’m very thankful that I didn’t have to go through that. But also, at the same time, I value people like that because they tell you, like, implicitly that like you’re, you’re not like struggling the most out of everybody here, you know?

Jourdan: Sam has planned to go to college next year. His cousin has been helping him with the application process.

Sam: ’Cause my dad doesn’t know anything, like he doesn’t know how the college process works. He doesn’t know, like, things, like he’s always telling me, he’s always like, oh, go to your cousin ’cause he knows, he’s been through it. And that’s the person that I go to all the time and he takes me on college tours and he’s … I give credit to him, a lot of credit to him. 

So I really hope I’m in a good college in a year and I see myself studying computer science and I hope to use that degree, whether it’s computer science or not, it probably might change. But I hope to use that to make a difference in the world, specifically in my community in Yemen, I really want to give back and I’ve always wanted to go back and visit family, so I hope to do that. 

Jourdan: Season four of From The Source Podcast is produced, reported and hosted by me, Jourdan Hicks. Halle Stockton is our editor-in-chief. Story editing, sound design and mixing by Liz Reid of Jeweltone Productions.

We continue to interview young people for the podcast as we speak. If you’re curious to learn how you can share your story with us, or nominate a young person, ages 13 to 18 to appear on an episode of From the Source, you can get in touch with me by sending me an email to jourdan@publicsource.org.

PublicSource is an independent nonprofit newsroom in Pittsburgh, Pa. You can find all of our reporting and storytelling at Publicsource.org. 

I’m Jourdan Hicks. Stay safe. Be well.

Jourdan is a senior community correspondent at PublicSource.  Contact her at Jourdan@publicsource.org.

The Grable Foundation provides funding to support this podcast.

The post <strong>Finding home: Exploring immigration through the teen experience | S4, Ep. 5</strong> appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.