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.
by Natalie Jesionka | 31 Dec 2020 | Americas, Health and Wellness, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows
A Honduran nonprofit that builds schools and tackles poverty hopes to outlast the pandemic. Its financial hardship is shared by nonprofits globally. Shin Fujiyama, fourth from left, and colleagues in Honduras (Photo courtesy of Shin Fujiyama) Shin Fujiyama has spent...
by Elena Townsend-Lerdo | 23 Dec 2020 | Contest winners, Contests, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, Student Posts, Thacher School, United States, Youth Voices
Incarcerated people in a California prison run a newspaper that raises awareness of social justice issues and offers a new chance to those in prison. Jonathan Chiu (Photo by Christie Goshe) This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling...
Elena Towsend-Lerdo introduces us to a convicted murderer who finds redemption at a newspaper run by prisoners in California’s oldest jail. The San Quentin News is online and accessible to readers around the world. Townsend-Lerdo interviews Jonathan Chiu, who was released after serving 16 years of his 50-year sentence, and a journalism professor who trains prisoners, providing first-hand insight into incarceration and rehabilitation. Those are meaty issues, but the student at La Jolla Country Day School avoids sweeping statements to offer us a peek into the U.S. criminal justice system and a unique path to atonement. Who could your students interview to learn about criminal justice?
by Tendayi Chirawu | 18 Dec 2020 | Friends Seminary, News Decoder Updates, Youth Voices
A former Student Ambassador, Malik Figaro was News Decoder’s first intern from a partner school. Here are lessons he has drawn in his gap year. Malik Figaro, News Decoder’s most recent intern, was nervous before he decided to take a year off between high...
by Nelson Graves | 14 Dec 2020 | African Leadership Academy, Contests, Hewitt, La Jolla Country Day School, News Decoder Updates, Youth Voices
Stories about West Africa, by Africans, dominated News Decoder’s latest Storytelling Contest, which showcases original work by young authors. Winning stories looked at West Africa and freedom of speech in the United States. Three students from the African...
by Joy Chinaza | 9 Dec 2020 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Contest winners, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights, Personal Reflections, Politics, Student Posts, Youth Voices
I joined protests against police brutality in my home country of Nigeria and saw them almost become a war, then a rude awakening for youth. Protesters in Umuahia, Nigeria, October 2020 (All photos courtesy of Eje Studios) This story was a runner-up in News...
Joy Chinaza takes us into the streets of Nigeria to join young people protesting against police brutality. Like youth elsewhere this year, she is driven by anger over rights abuses perpetrated by police charged with protecting civilians but who instead turn weapons against minorities. A shared sense of injustice motivates Chinaza and millions of others around the globe, making her story a metaphor for youthful outrage. But the personal details in the tale by the African Leadership Academy student, including the beating her own brother suffers, add poignancy that sets her account apart. Make sure students note how the first-person pronoun draws them into the story. And how her outrage — so common among youth — is tinged with ambiguity at the end.
by Jasmine Li | 1 Dec 2020 | China, Culture, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, Student Posts, Westover School, Youth Voices
COVID-19 left me in limbo in the United States, full of fear and anger. Then I returned home to China to face criticism before reuniting with my family. An empty John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (All photos by Jasmine Li) So this is where I am going...
The coronavirus pandemic has put strains on students, their families, schools, entire communities. But Jasmine Li, a Chinese student at Westover School in the United States, provides a first-person account of the special difficulties facing foreign nationals caught in limbo as COVID-19 triggered global travel restrictions. Li cannot return to her temporary home at school, and when she finally makes it home to China, she discovers some compatriots consider her a traitor and urge her to leave. Adolescence can be a difficult period of self-discovery, but Li’s painful experiences are the product of a globalized world that, in normal circumstances, offers extraordinary opportunities but which, during a pandemic, sees forgotten borders re-emerge. Ask each student to describe their most difficult moment during the pandemic. How do their experiences compare?
by Nelson Graves | 30 Nov 2020 | Students in the Spotlight, Westover School
The all girls boarding school in the U.S. wins our monthly award for the second time for its creative engagement with News Decoder in an Ethics class. Westover has now won the Decoder in the Spotlight award twice for its creative engagement with News Decoder. (Photo...
by Tara Heidger | 16 Nov 2020 | Health and Wellness, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows, Women
Most cities are built and governed by men. Experts are taking into account the needs of women as they reshape our urban spaces. Women collect water near Bhopal, India, 2 May 2020. (EPA-EFE/SANJEEV GUPTA) More than 83% of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed...
by Varlee S Fofana | 10 Nov 2020 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Contest winners, Educators' Catalog, Personal Reflections, Student Posts, Youth Voices
My family fled civil war in Liberia to a refugee camp in Guinea in West Africa. I learned the power of resilience and the value of diversity. The author, in white next to the woman on the right, at the Kouankan refugee camp in Guinea This story won first prize in News...
News Decoder’s goal is to create a global community, and Varlee Fofana has added his unique voice to the conversation with an essay about growing up in a refugee camp in Guinea. Not many News Decoder students have had to flee civil war as Fofana did, yet many play football, as the author did to connect with other refugee children. Gathering wood, plowing farmland or selling kerosene might not be common chores for most News Decoder students, but they, too, face challenges. Ask your class to read Fofana’s story and then, in up to 600 words, describe a personal experience that shaped their life and character. Encourage them to follow Fofana’s example by using simple words and an unassuming tone to draw readers into their world.
