Budding Young Filmmakers, Listen Up!

Youth Made Media participants Danny Raba (standing), Yara Babosa (center) and Sameer Khan
Photo By City Parks Foundation 

On Friday, October 18, 2013, City Parks Foundation hosted an open media call at Lost Battalion Hall Recreation Center in Rego Park, the Queens location of its Youth Made Media (YM2) program, which offers young people, ages 13 to l9 from low-income communities, a structured learning experience in video and audio production, media literacy, new media, academic support and life skills training. Members of the press were invited to watch teenage participants showcase the many skills they have learned thus far through Youth Made Media, including how to use specialized industry software to create movies, documentaries and narratives. The fall semester of the program will continue through the end of December, and a separate spring semester will begin in January. The program gives inner-city youth the opportunity to express themselves artistically, develop leadership skills, discover their talents and learn how to produce original shows for the Public Access Youth Network.

This fall season of the program, Youth Made Media hired 30 past participants from its summer institute as peer educators. These paid positions, with funding support from The Pinkerton Foundation, highlight the skills of these driven young teens who have excelled in and been certified through the program. They share their knowledge and talent with the newest crop of students, offering peer-focused instruction and support. One of the many skills these paid interns are helping to teach their peers is how to create stop motion animation (such as claymation) using an iPad. The paid internship also provides the peer educators with the opportunity to pursue externships as television production assistants at their local public access channels, giving these teens a hands-on opportunity to utilize and improve upon their skills as well as providing them with valuable career training.

One of these peer educators is Joel Pacheco, 15, a Youth Made Media intern since November 2012 and a Sophomore at the Academy of Finance and Enterprise. Pacheco is a prime example of a past student of Youth Made Media who is broadening his horizons and thinking about media as a possible career path.

Yara Babosa and Joel Pacheco
Photo By City Parks Foundation

For more details, please visit http://www.CityParksFoundation.org/education.