Tag: Youth

  • AjA Students Spearhead Recycling Initiative

    By Julia Richardson Over the course of the fall semester, Monroe Clark Middle School students in The AjA Project’s PhotoCity program were busy learning about recycling and creating a brochure that outlines a new recycling initiative at the school. The students took a trip to Urban Corps to learn about California’s CRV program, which lets…

  • How Reality Changers Won Big by Betting on Longshots

    Eduardo Corona is a Reality Changers success story. Once a gang member, he’s now attending college and leading a Reality Changers program. | Photo Courtesy of Quiet Pictures By Mario Koran Here in this corner of City Heights, busted childhoods are rewritten. The stories are reframed, polished and packaged as college entrance essays, winning tickets…

  • Careers for Mid-City Youth Sprout From Unlikely Place

    A nonprofit that helps youth find jobs after being arrested has jumped on the food movement bandwagon. It’s using gardening to teach at-risk youth responsibility and help springboard them into the local food industry. Speak City Heights intern Bianca Bruno speaks to three program graduates whose careers are just beginning to sprout. | Video Credit:…

  • Youth Propose Garden and Art Wall

    City Heights youth who participated in The AjA Project‘s PhotoCity class this spring developed two proposals for creating positive change in City Heights: build a community art wall and form a garden club and garden at Monroe Clark Middle School. Students who want a space to express themselves have proposed building a public art wall,…

  • City Heights Youth Shed Light on San Diego’s Streetlight Problem

    Monroe Clark Middle School students chose to talk about how dark and unsafe their community feels for an after-school photography project led by The AjA Project. | Photo Credit: Kassandra, 13 By Megan Burks When Rosario Iannacone steps outside her father’s home after dark, she shudders with the memory of her close call with a…