I spoke with Josue Rojas, another person who also has the first hand experience in youth journalism. Josue is a journalist and an artist. He was born in El Salvador, but raised in San Francisco. Growing up in the Mission District of San Francisco wasn’t easy for Josue. At the time, his neighborhood had problems with gang violence. He recalls going to five different high schools. He would get into trouble for things like tagging or even coming to school intoxicated, if he came to school at all. Josue lost his father at the age of 15.

But soon, Josue found his passion for art. He started to carry around a black sketching book and dreamed of being an artist. During his senior year of high school, Richard McGee Hurbert, the founder of Youth Outlook (YO!), came into his class for a presentation in 1997 and introduced Josue to journalism. Josue has “been part of the family ever since.”

[pullquote_right] Work hard at what you want in order to succeed. Even though the field of journalism is getting more impacted each and every day, I encourage youth to get into journalism because you can gain great experiences, and your stories can change lives — for both you and the reader. [/pullquote_right]

As part of New America Media, YO’s parent organization (and We’Ced’s), Josue has been involved with several youth projects and youth media groups, either as a writer or illustrator. He’s travelled all over the US and the world with his art. All that was possible because of youth journalism.

The good news is, you can also be a youth journalist!

There are countless organizations in California where young people are published, either in print or on the web. New America Media alone houses youth media groups like The Richmond Pulse, Silicon Valley DeBug, The kNOw in Fresno, Coachella Unincorporated, Voicewaves in Long Beach, and South Kern Sol in Bakersfield, but there are many, many more out there. If you don’t have something like this close by, get some friends together and start your own!

Work hard at what you want in order to succeed. Even though the field of journalism is getting more impacted each and every day, I encourage youth to get into journalism because you can gain great experiences, and your stories can change lives — for both you and the reader. Plus, it feels amazing to see your name in a newspaper or magazine. You can be proud of yourself for doing something productive, and it’s you, all you.