by Elizabeth Tina Fornah | 8 Dec 2021 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Contest winners, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Youth Voices
My father was the light in my life — until he left. A setback, for sure, but my mother and I persevered. Now I know courage bows to no obstacle. (Shutterstock/Anna Ismagilova) This story was co-winner of the first prize in News Decoder’s 10th Storytelling...
Elizabeth Tina Fornah of the African Leadership Academy relates the pain that so many young people experience when separated from a parent, but her story rises above self-pity as the narrator discovers courage in her refusal to bow to inevitable obstacles. “This is a painful, yet relatable reflection on the challenges of pursuing survival and the determination to succeed,” News Decoder Trustee Faith Abiodun said. “This writer has such a way with words that a difficult topic becomes almost enjoyable. Brilliant and gripping at the same time.” Throughout the highly personal account, Tina Fornah leverages the image of light to lend continuity as the narrator grows in strength and understanding.
Exercise: Ask students to describe their relationship with their parents and whether the expression “there is light at the end of the tunnel” captures their feelings as they contemplate eventually leaving home.
by Li Keira Yin | 6 Dec 2021 | China, Contest winners, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, Politics, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
Tibet’s many languages are under threat from Beijing’s policies and economic realities, putting cultural traditions and memories at risk. Tsupkhu Lama in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India in June 2019. (Photo by Li Keira Yin) This story won honorable...
Li Keira Yin of The Thacher School examines the difficulties that minority languages face surviving in Tibet without falling into the trap of concluding that it’s all the fault of the Communist Party leadership in Beijing when economic pressures in a globalized economy are part of the explanation. For her nuanced view, Yin draws from her unique perspective as someone raised in China who is studying in the United States. Her account of the complexities of language in Tibet started when Yin listened to her Chinese grandmother speak a dialect at home while speaking in Mandarin when picking up the phone. “I started wondering why dialects and minority languages have to be overpowered by Mandarin in China, and so I dug deeper,” Yin said. A lesson for other students struggling to understand how their lives fit into the bigger scheme of things.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss when it’s important for authorities to protect minority languages.
by Kamuskay Kamara | 2 Nov 2021 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Contest winners, Health and Wellness, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Kamuskay Kamara grew up in the streets of Sierra Leone’s capital. He saw young people in the clutches of drugs and now is saving their lives. “I want to actually change the lives of young people.” Kamuskay Kamara has created an NGO to combat drug...
by Miriam Hernandez | 23 Apr 2021 | Art, Contest winners, Contests, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
My family came to the U.S. from Mexico. I used to be ashamed of our humble lifestyle. I offer these photos to show I’m now proud. This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. Originally from Zapotitlan Palmas, a small town in...
Many students have much to say, but freeze when asked to put pen to paper. Asking them to first engage in other forms of self-reflection may make it easier to produce powerful written texts. Miriam Hernandez of Westover School demonstrates this point with her piece on growing up in the United States as a daughter of Mexican immigrants. Hernandez began with uncaptioned photographs of her family’s surroundings — a dinner table, a kitchen sink, a breeze through the front door — and later produced accompanying text — simple, direct, unvarnished — that complements the photos. Together, the pictures and text offer a candid glimpse of the author’s upbringing and how she came to terms with her heritage.
Exercise: Ask your students to take a series of photographs of life at home and to then write about what the images represent to them.
by Evan Wright | 14 Apr 2021 | Asia, Contest winners, Contests, Human Rights, Indiana University, Politics, Student Posts, Youth Voices
They are 8,000 miles from Myanmar, but Burmese in the U.S. are raising money in a fight for the restoration of democracy in the Asian nation. A recent protest against the military coup in Myanmar, in Indianapolis, Indiana (courtesy of Elaisa Vahnie) This story was a...
by Lucy Bird | 12 Apr 2021 | Americas, Art, Contest winners, Contests, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
Inspired by Black Lives Matter protests, I offer a photo essay as a haunting reminder that the fight continues decades after the Civil Rights Movement. This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. With my photography project, I...
The Black Lives Matter movement has stirred young people around the globe and raised hopes that racism and police brutality against Blacks can be curbed. For many elders, the hopes are tinged by nagging fears that a generation from now race relations will remain strained and injustices will persist. Lucy Bird, a 17-year-old student at Westover School, captures those worries in her haunting series of photos that juxtapose iconic images from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement with glimpses from BLM protests.
Exercise: Ask your students to apply their photo skills to create a visual essay that manipulates existing photographs to capture their concerns about the future.
by Li Keira Yin | 7 Apr 2021 | Americas, China, Contest winners, Contests, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
Born in China, I decided to study in the U.S. I love my home country but harbor guilt as I become less and less Chinese over time. Photo by Markus Winkler This story was a runner-up in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling Contest. Artist’s Statement: I grew up in...
Growing up means eventually coming to terms with one’s upbringing. Doing so can be especially challenging for young people straddling different cultures. In a five-stanza poem, Li Keira Yin of The Thacher School explores the contradictions between the world of her Chinese grandparents and her life at a boarding school in the United States. News Decoder helps young people around the world extend their horizons and learn to appreciate different viewpoints. Some have the advantage of confronting opposing outlooks at an early age, and Yin demonstrates her maturity in reconciling the inherent antagonism between her two very distinct cultures.
Exercise: Ask each student to identify a fault line within their family and to write an essay or poem that is sympathetic to each side.
by Akvile Seleviciute and Auguste Sturlyte | 31 Mar 2021 | Art, Contest winners, Contests, Environment, European School Brussels, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Students in Brussels are engaging in an art protest to show the world that it’s time to make far-reaching changes to avert a climate catastrophe. A sketch of “The Writing’s on the Wall,” by Amélie Zimmermann This story was a runner-up in News...
by Lucy Jaffee | 24 Feb 2021 | Americas, Contest winners, Contests, Educators' Catalog, Environment, La Jolla Country Day School, Student Posts, United States, Youth Voices
Most Americans want schools to teach about global warming. But skeptics and lack of teacher training make it hard to implement climate change education. Students learn about water filtration as part of their climate literacy curriculum in Portland, Oregon, 30 January...
Climate deniers have lost the political high ground in the United States, but the struggle to combat global warming has only just begun. Lucy Jaffee of La Jolla Country Day School explores why teaching about climate change can help reduce carbon emissions, but also why U.S. schools are having such a hard time fostering climate literacy. She interviewed a local expert and two teachers in her examination of the challenges schools face in meeting the expectations of parents who want climate change in the curriculum. Ask your students to explore how climate change is being taught in their school, and if not, why not?
by Christina MacCorkle | 26 Jan 2021 | Asia, Contest winners, Contests, Media Literacy, Politics, Student Posts, Thacher School, Youth Voices
A pro-democracy movement in South Korea offers lessons to two U.S. social movements — against police brutality and for a defeated ex-president. Black Lives Matter protesters hold their phones aloft in Portland, Oregon, 20 July 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) This story...
Sociologists are the first to admit they are apt to speak their own tongue, so reporting on sociological research can tie even experienced reporters in knots. And high school students are not always interested in events of half a century ago. So it’s a rare pleasure when a student connects a pro-democracy movement in South Korea during the 1960s and ‘70s with social movements in the United States today, and renders sociology understandable to the untrained ear in the process. Christina MacCorkle of The Thacher School takes academic research about a country far from her school’s California campus and connects it to current events in the U.S., using simple language to convey complex academic arguments. Many students are trained to write academic essays, but MacCorkle enlightens those of us outside of academia.
