Mississippi Youth Media Project
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YMP Student Voices

Hear from our current class of 2017 Youth Media Project participants in their own words.

Breaking Leads, Busting Stereotypes

6/19/2017

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by August Harp

What is the Youth Media Project? Is it a summer camp? Is it a group of journalists? Is it the Marilyn Monroe cut-out that greets us at the door? The Youth Media Project is a group of young adults using the pencil to defeat the sword-wielding stereotypes that are handcuffed to young people, especially Mississippi youth. 

What is YMP all about to me? 

When I press this lead against the smooth white paper it will leave a line, dark and grainy, which I will move and make my mark on this paper. I could finish writing this essay, or I could scribble all over this paper, which I won’t … but I could. When it’s all said and done, I can erase anything and everything I write or I could turn this essay into something. But how? How can I use a blog post on my experience in YMP to change the perception of a total stranger?

My pencil’s lead breaks. For a moment, my pencil has taken me over. It has forced me to get up to sharpen it—this pencil owns this brief frustration. This pencil has now taken me and forced me to acknowledge its presence. This pencil, although for only a moment, has gone from a mere pawn to a king. 

Society will continue to try and hold us down. They will continue to try to write our story. We are all pencils the stereotypes are using to hold us down. However, we can break our leads, and we can be acknowledged. Each story we put in into the public's hands should be our lead breaking.

Sometimes it feels like the state is pressing my lead against the smooth white paper. I am making a mark—but is it my mark? Is a story written for all of its readers to appreciate, accept and then praise. Is it really mine? 

In the Youth Media Project, our job is to bring attention to issues facing young people, the Jackson area, Mississippi, the nation. Our job is to challenge the norm. Our job is to give young people a voice that will hopefully be heard, critiqued and acted upon. Our job is to make our own stories, not anyone else's. Our stories need to be our story, not a copy-and-paste article with a clickbait headline like we see so often in today's media. We need to break our leads. For a moment, we can take control of the stereotypes trying to write and control our stories.
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Major Sponsors and Supporters of YMP

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Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) is a leader in informational broadcasting. MPB has exhibited a commitment to educating and informing Mississippians. MPB has partnered with YMP to lend tech equipment and provide youth engagement and media specialists to train students. 
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E3, a project of Parents of Public Schools of Jackson (now Ask for More), supported YMP in summers 2016 and 2017 with stipends for students, and other  resources.
The Community Foundation of Greater Jackson (now The Community Foundation of Mississippi) is the
​fiscal sponsor for E3.
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Podastery Studios in downtown Jackson offers a network of locally produced podcasts. Beau York, founder of Podastery, has generously donated his time to train YMP students in podcasting skills and allowed Youth Media Project students to borrow professional podcasting equipment to learn
​production skills.
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Dialogue Jackson, formerly Jackson 2000 Inc., is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to fostering understanding and building harmony between people of different races, ethnicities and backgrounds. The group became YMP's fiscal sponsor in 2017 and hosts youth dialogues for teens.. 

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Choice Printing in downtown Jackson is an in-kind sponsor of YMP offering YMP copying and printing services from its Capitol Towers location.

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Good Design & Code >>

Good Design & Co offers high-end UI/UX, web development, app development and branding services. Principal J.C. Hiatt is helping YMP students publish their own website for stories, video, podcasts and more.
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Jackson-based Workplace Solutions by Barefield is a Steelcase authorized dealer offering high-end office furniture and technology solutions. Workplace Solutions has loaned chairs, mobile desks and mobile whiteboards to create a collaborative office for YMP participants.

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Jackson-based Fuse.cloud (formerly Broadband Voice) offers Voice-over-IP phone systems, fiber Internet connections and technical services. Fuse.cloud has sponsored phones, VoIP phone service and technical assistance for YMP.

SPECIAL THANKS TO DR. GEORGE SCHIMMEL and NATALIE IRBY FOR THEIR GENEROUS DONATIONS OF PRODUCTION IMACS FOR THE YOUTH MEDIA PROJECT.
CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO YMP.
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