Telling their own stories
May 7, 2008
Alex Reyes, 15, has an important story to tell. It’s a common one amongst his peers — his parents came to the United States from Mexico in search of a better life, but in trying to provide that, spend little time with their children.
As a journalist, my instinct is to tell that story. A year ago, I would have. I would have interviewed Alex, maybe his parents, and written about his life.
But I didn’t do that. After spending a year in the Reynold’s School of Journalism master’s program at the University of Nevada, Reno, I took a different approach.
Instead of telling his story, I let him do it. Read more
Related posts: [ American Dream can be elusive ] [ Talking about immigration ] [ Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Student shares story of hard work ]
Student overcomes obstacles to go to college
May 6, 2008
Karen Duran, 17, didn’t know how to apply for college. And her parents couldn’t help. But she’s always known she wanted to make a better life for herself, to make her parents’ sacrifice worth it.
So she got the help she needed. She wrote about it as part of a student journalism project at Incline High School.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ American Dream can be elusive ] [ Talking about immigration ] [ Student shares story of hard work ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ]
Freshman sets sights on graduation
May 6, 2008
Jacky Andrade, 15, plans to be the first girl in her family to finish high school. Her mother didn’t graduate and has always stressed the importance to Jacky and her older brother, Frankie.
Jacky, a freshman at Incline High School, says it can be a lot of pressure, but she wants to graduate to make her mom proud. She was among about 10 students who participated in a journalism project for this site.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Talking about immigration ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Featured Question ] [ Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation ]
Community newspaper struggles to reach Hispanics
May 2, 2008
Enoja. It means anger in Spanish, but many residents in Incline Village don’t want to know what it means — at least they don’t want to read it, or any other Spanish words for that matter, in their local newspaper.
When the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza launched “Nuestra Comunidad,” in September, the newsroom was flooded with outraged phone calls. Meaning “Our Community,” it’s one page featuring stories and briefs, previously published in the newspaper, translated into Spanish. Read more
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American Dream can be elusive
April 30, 2008
A big part of the American Dream is access to higher education leading to greater opportunity in life. Many leave their homes and come to the United States in search of this opportunity.
But language and cultural barriers, along with unfamiliarity with the system, can make that dream elusive.
Here’s one Incline High School girl’s story:
By Karen Duran
”What are you going to do after high school ends?” It’s a question often asked. Well, for me the answer for that question is, “I’m going to college.”
My junior year, I finally realized that I had to start thinking about my future. As my senior year rolled around, I was thinking this is going to be a breeze.
I figured out later that it was going to be a category 5 hurricane.
Applying to college was where everything started. I didn’t know what to do.
It was a new thing for me. My parents could not help me in the process because it was new to them too. I did not know where to even begin.
I called the only person who I thought could help me and that was Katie. Katie was like a mentor to me. I had participated in a leadership program that she had created. It had been about two or three years since I had participated in the program, but we had stayed in touch. Katie save me from the confusion I was in.
Katie ended up telling me about Emily. Emily was the college master. She knew where to start applying for college and how to write a good essay.
Emily taught not just me but my parents about applying to and paying for college. Coming from a hurricane to a calm, sunny day of now having more knowledge of what to do.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ] [ Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation ] [ Talking about immigration ]
Student shares story of hard work
April 29, 2008
I spoke this week with one of the students participating in my program. His name is J.J. Rodriguez. He’s 16, and he works about 40 hours a week in addition to being a sophomore at Incline High School.He works 12 hours on Saturdays bussing tables at the Biltmore. During his hour-long lunch break, I interviewed him in the woods behind the casino.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Get to know us–read our blogs ] [ Ways of going green ] [ Tour the Cedar House ]
Spending time with family makes a difference
April 23, 2008
A second Incline High School student submitted a blog this week. Like Alex, he is concerned with parents who spend a lot of time at work and little with the family. However, he writes that his parents are involved, and he’s grateful for that.
By Johnny Luna
Incline High School
Many teenagers have parents who always work and barely spend any time with their children. It is not that the parents don’t want to, it is just that the parents need to work in order to maintain the family.
In my family, my dad makes time for me and my family by planning camping trips or going to the park. Doing these activities really makes a close relationship.
I always enjoy spending family time and am grateful. I know that there are many teens in Incline that don’t spend enough family time. I just wish there was some way I could help those people.
Sometimes, when I want to go and do activities with my friends, they say yes. But they get sad when they see that I always do fun activities with my family.
Some parents don’t really know their kids because they don’t spend enough time with them. Some kids get involved in many problems, from gangs to drugs.
I wish there was a way that parents or people could help these kids.
Related posts: [ Talking about immigration ] [ Telling their own stories ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ] [ Student blogs about working parents ]
Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation
April 15, 2008
It’s the American dream that brings them here, and it may end up being their downfall, one Kings Beach resident said at a community meeting. An immigrant from Colombia, David Escobar, 38, said he sees Hispanics coming to the United States in pursuit of a better life. To achieve that, they often work long hours with few days off. As a result, he said, their children are left to be raised by the television, not belonging to either the Latino or the Anglo culture. Read more
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ] [ Talking about immigration ] [ Understanding diversity ] [ Community newspaper struggles to reach Hispanics ]
Student blogs about working parents
April 11, 2008
I received my first submission from one of the students in the Mi Cultura group at Incline High School today.
Here it is:
By Alex Reyes
Well, this is how my story goes. My dad has a job at the new elementary school. He wakes up at 6 a.m., while my mom, sister and I are asleep.
I don’t see him.
I go to school, then after school I go eat with friends and then go home. My mom is there babysitting. I get ready to go practice soccer like at 3:30. My dad gets at my house like at 4 p.m.
After practice, I go home like at 8, and I only get to see my dad like for one hour.
I just want to let everybody know that if you want to see someone important to you, try and try really hard so you can see that person. Some friends that I have do the same thing.
I just want to say that us Latins, or Mexicans, that our parents want the best for us and that’s why they suffer so much for us.
Try to appreciate your parents. Sometimes they can be rude, but that’s how parents get. They have to go through so much that we don’t even know.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Student overcomes obstacles to go to college ] [ Ways of going green ] [ Spending time with family makes a difference ] [ Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation ]
Talking about immigration
April 1, 2008
There are a lot of stereotypes about immigrants.
I talked about them this week with a group of high school students at Incline Village High School. They’re members of Mi Cultura, a group of Hispanic youths at the high school.
I asked them what some of the misconceptions they thought existed when it came to immigrants — most of their parents, some of them.
The first reaction of Jennifer, the president of the club, was to correct me. They’re not “immigrants,” she said, they’re people.
And they’re not all the same.
Everyone comes for his or her own reason, they argued. And most of those reasons are noble, usually to make a better life for their children.
And as the children of immigrants, this group of high-schoolers feel the pressure.
One freshman girl will be the first in her family to graduate.
“I’m not doing it just for myself,” she said. “I’m doing it for everyone in my family.”
Because of that, they work hard on their grades. They’re involved in student activities, like planning for the prom.
And they do most of it slipping seamlessly from Spanish to English and back again.
It was enlightening to meet them, to hear their stories. It was especially interesting to hear them talk about whether racism existed in their community. They grappled with what it means exactly and the ways in which it can be manifested.
It was a little intimidating too, to be honest. Although teenagers look like the rest of us, they really are distinct creatures. That makes it hard to relate sometimes, but they also have such a fresh insight.
As part of this project, this group of teenagers will be discussing issues like these, and they’ll be publishing stories and photos on this site.
I’m excited to see what they do.
You should be too.
Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Spending time with family makes a difference ] [ Understanding diversity ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ] [ Tahoe Latinos confront garbage problem ]
Latest Headlines
- Hearing planned in Incline tree-felling case - The federal trial for an Incline Village woman charged with hiring a tree-cutting company to chop three Ponderosa Pines from her Lake Tahoe property has been canceled and a change-of-plea hearing scheduled May 1.
- Truckee man takes torch to North Pole - A Truckee man who reached the North Pole this week carrying an unlit torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games plans to discuss his experience and environmental issues Saturday by audio and video transmissions with participants at a Lake Tahoe festival.
- Quake pattern watched closely - As earthquakes continue to shake Reno, two reports released this month give new insight into the likely characteristics of a temblor at Lake Tahoe.
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