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Emma working with students in Harlem.

My senior year of high school, I left my biology lab at the bell, wound my way through the overcrowded halls, and headed out to catch a ride to the downtown offices of      Y-Press.

A speaker phone, a brick-sized tape recorder and a list of carefully edited questions awaited me. As a 17-year-old public school student, I was scheduled at 4 p.m. to question U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige on the policies that helped dictate my daily routine.

Today I am a parent organizer at Cypress Hills Advocates for Education, a group of parents and residents who work to improve public schools in East New York. Every day I observe the consequences of inequity in school funding and reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of relying on high-stakes testing as a reform strategies themes I first touched on in the questions I asked Secretary Paige over six years ago.

All I really need to know I learned at Y-Press

By Courtney Sampson, joined in 1999

Let me give you a fair warning. This blog post is a spoof of Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.” If you’ve read Fulghum’s best-selling books, of course you know the lessons are applicable to all of our lives, no matter our age. But, Y-Press told me I had to credit my source. So thanks, Mr. Fulghum, for your wisdom and insight to life’s big lessons.

Now, without further adieu…”All I Really Need to Know I Learned at Y-Press.”

An incredible gift

By Lisa Schubert, joined in 1990

Lisa Schubert recalls interviewing youth in the small Athabascan village of Tyonek.

I remember that nauseating ride on a bush plane like it happened yesterday.  I was 15 and traveling in January with a reporting team to Alaska. We were there to interview young people for a diversity book.

Half of our team flew out of Anchorage, across the scintillating white blanket of frozen mountains and tundra. From the bumpy air, the small Athabascan village of Tyonek looked quaint and innocent.

But the story on the ground was very different.

A new vantage point

By Wendy Potasnik Stern, joined in 1990

 

Wendy Potasnik Stern, pictured on right.

Amid day-to-day chores like sock folding and dishwasher unloading, it’s rare that I spend time thinking about juvenile justice. You see, these days I’m a stay-at-home mom living in California, and while it’s quite common for me to recite Goodnight Moon by heart to my 4-year-old or help my 6-year-old with addition and subtraction, I don’t exactly keep tabs on the latest Supreme Court judgments or controversial decisions.

That’s why it was surprising to be contacted by Seth Stern, (no relation) a legal reporter for the Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. Among other things, Stern is a biographer of the late Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, a judicial titan known for his lasting influence and liberal sway.

Being uncomfortable: a positive lesson

Jordan Denari was inspired to take risks and jump fences in order to get the full story.

By Jordan Denari, joined Y-Press in 2003

In the middle of Manhattan, I wandered slowly toward the protest and was finally stopped by metal barriers guarded by police officers, who had failed to prevent newcomers from leaping into the march.  I scrambled onto a concrete ledge on the sidewalk, and hoisted myself up so I could survey the scene.  As far as I could see down the street each way, the crowd of 250,000 extended, signs of brilliant colors bobbing above their heads.   As I hopped down from my perch, I paused picturing my parents in my mind and hearing my mother’s cautious voice in my ear.  But I grabbed the cold metal bars in front of me, and swung over the fence.

These words come from a reflection paper written in high school about my experiences covering a New York City protest for Y-Press at the 2004 Republican National Convention.  I was 13, and looking back, this experience of risk-taking came to define and shift the course of my teenage years.  Some form of this reflection has made it into every personal statement or analysis paper I’ve written, and each time I look back on the experience, I glean some new understanding.  As a college sophomore who recently turned 20, I realize that my week in New York presented me with an opportunity to be uncomfortable, and proved that payoffs exist if one is willing to take risks.

Reflections on OKC and NYC

In coming to terms with 9/11, Jacob Pactor looked back on his interviews with kids affected by the Oklahoma City Bombing.

By Jacob Pactor,  joined Y-Press in 1995

On September 11, 2001, I sat in American History 101. Through the open door, I began to notice a group of students and faculty gathered in the lounge.  After class, I walked the 75 feet to see what caught their interest. I saw replays of the first plane strike the tower. I watched the second plane strike.

In two days, my second issue as editor of The Bachelor, Wabash College’s weekly newspaper, would go to print. I’m proud to say we covered the 9/11 story with vigor and excellence. We contacted alumni living in NYC, current students from NYC, political science professors, and our Wabash athletes who still played soccer when the rest of the nation stood still. (You can read the entire issue here.)

That only happened because of my experiences at Children’s Express, now called Y-Press.

Tech then and now: Writing about the Internet 10 years ago

By Clay Smith,  joined Y-Press in 1998

We’ve made amazing progress on the Internet since the year 2000. Revisiting several technology-related stories I worked on around the turn of the millennium, I’m surprised how well the articles have aged. Even though the stories were being written in the heady days of the pre-dot com bust, the students and educators we interviewed had incredibly prescient insights into emerging technology. It’s clear to me that hearing their stories and perspectives on technology 10 years ago influenced my current career choice.