Final Narrative

 My name is Genevieve Medina, this is my change project: 

As a student, I got involved in as many programs as I possibly could. I joined summer schools, STEM programs, swimming lessons, volunteering/internship opportunities and everything in between. And as a youth worker I’ve worked with just as many programs. 

Looking back now, now having started my career as a youth worker, I keep thinking “there are so many programs”. Why aren't they better connected? Why are there 5 different programs with the same mission? How can we make this work for young people? How can we make sure they have all the information they need to take advantage of every opportunity they can?

There is my “why”. I believe young people deserve to be given access to every possible opportunity to further support their academic, socioemotional, and artistic needs/desires. 

In thinking about this project, I had difficulty thinking about how to address this need. As Wesch felt thinking about the vast experiences and knowledge that youth bring into a classroom - I think about the value and resources so many organizations can bring to the youth space - engaging, exchanging ideas, grappling with different challenges, finding answers, and asking more questions. 

Now to think about the “how”. How do I begin to connect these organizations? Thinking about the focus on technology for this course I instantly thought “Network”. A network of organizations in Rhode Island that aim to serve Rhode Island youth. 

Which brings me to my product: I would like to create a social media page that offers young people organization profiles, event notifications, job postings, and other opportunities that they may be interested in that can be shared to a large audience at once. 

I thought Instagram would be a great tool to use for this purpose. It would be an effective tool - since Instagram seems to be popular among both older and younger generations (or as Prensky would say, digital immigrants and digital natives.)

The instagram would be perfect to share flyers, short promotional videos, digital photo/video archives, and connecting students and community organizations.

Of course, instagram would be effective in sharing visuals, I thought about the more dense resources - such as documents, archived photos and videos, and other useful forms of media. 

Then another lightbulb went off. Instagram has a feature to link a webpage - Here is where i could plug in a shared google drive. 

The drive would be home to the bulk of the shared resources. Where students can go in and find a program that supports their art, or a program that could get them an SAT tutor. It could also be where they find resume writing guides, internship opportunities, or tips on how to fill out the FAFSA. 

My hope is that this network starts as a singular space where youth and youth orgs can connect with each other and eventually grows to be a much larger union of communities supporting young people’s needs. 

Having grown up in Providence, I know there is great talent and potential in the young people of this city

and this state. Lifting up Providence is something that I take great pride in and hope to be able to do in my

Career. I believe a product like this would work especially well in this state because of how small we are. We are a connected community - everyone knows someone who knows someone who share the same goals and beliefs that we do.  I believe creating a network like this and building a social media presence can be the beginning of developing access  for all.

At the end of the day,  I want to be able to encourage and develop the potential in students to become leaders and create pathways for them to continue to lift up our community.

Using technology in this way - creating a network like this could create a relationship between

learners and educators in which they can have an open exchange of knowledge. In this way,

adults can truly work with young people to combat injustice. In this way we can find ways to 

build policies, implement practices, and model systems in which the most marginalized students

are included and supported in our youth programs, or our schools, or in higher education institutions.

After taking this course i feel empowered to use the tools at my disposal to bridge the gaps that I have recognized in my work and the world around me. This past year, we as youth workers have relied heavily on technology to connect us, and with my change project I would like to use this technology to do just that - connect us. 

Instagram and the Google Drive are both tools I am familiar with and have used in the past. After taking this course, and thinking about this change project I am now recognizing the ownership and the intentionality I can take with these tools to further my goals and the goals of the youth organizations in this state.  And while this idea is very broad and also requires a lot more depth, logistic organization, and buy-in from others, I think it is a goal that we can have fun with and begin to develop well for our students to use and get the most out of.