Connectopod™

Angie B has been with us since she was 9! We are so proud of her on her graduation from Kennedy HS and her UC promise path via Mission College. This bright and eager kid has blossomed into a talented and skillful young woman. Our Changing the Narrative Season 4 is entitled 'Aguantate'- which in Spanish kind of means "suck it up" but comes from the verb Aguantar-to endure. Angelica embodies the toughness that it takes push past your challenges and the beauty nurtured by an open heart and mind. Her sense of social justice and belief in the power ofnarrative are invigorating.  Go Angie!

What is the Difference between an Asylee and a Refugee? Did you know there is a 'Big R' refugee and a 'little r' refugee? Undocumented, Displaced internal Person (DIP), DACA, Migrant, Unaccompanied Minor (UC)...so many titles for youth and their families seeking safety and stability. 

Only 30% of the world's population are childrenBut children make up 41% of all displaced persons 

As we begin season 4 of CTN, Jonathan Fein Proaño, Integrations Manager for the Unaccompanied Children's program at the International Rescue Committee in Los Angeles helps us understand the challenges and paths to citizenship for youth seeking asylum in the US.

A group of students working on a story for Connectopod uncover the journals of researcher John C. He had discovered a new planet: K-68. The team pieces together the history of this planet, which sounds quite a bit like our own. Is  K-68 doomed to repeat our mistakes? Will ORB be able to restore balance? Who are the Paused and the Resumed? Find out!

Created by Fernando Avalos, Jennifer Maqueda, Norsorrfhia Cardenas, Ixchel Lopez, Quetzali Lopez, Marcia Melkonian, Betsy Foldes Meiman

Produced by Betsy Foldes Meiman

It's that time of year again! We're spotlighting our grads as they head on to new adventures.Carly Fawcett is our first remote intern, working away for the last year on Connectopod's social media from Louisville, KY. She's funny, whipsmart, and has a heart so big you can hear it thumping all the way in LA!  Hear her take on inclusive video game design, Gen Z mental health, and Hiltopper blobs. Congrats to Carly who is on her way to Western Kentucky U.

What do we seek in abandoned spaces? Lena Sage, (14) abandoned space explorer from Lynchburg VA, talks about "psychological factors, built traits, relations to art, relations to locations, rarity of emotion, content, and behavior. What compels the human as a whole to do certain things and be attracted to certain fields?" Post production by Kevin Stevens who also composed the music on a funky instrument called The Marvin.

The Canoga Park Dia de Los Muertos festival on November 7th was a whirl of color, bounce house generators, music, laughter, the wafting scents of food, and just life out loud. Basically everything the last year and a half were not! After a year of loss, Dia de los Muertos felt especially relevant and celebrational.

We set up an audio Ofrenda for people to honor family and friends who have passed. The presence of loved ones was deeply felt that day.  What stays with us the most seems to be the tiniest moments--from toes in the sand, to seeing the world in a flash of lightening, to brushing our teeth with red gel toothpaste. Tiny moments of magical connection.

Thanks to all who so generously shared their stories, their losses and joys.

JJ and AJ Mathis

Carlos Fernandez

Johanna Matamoros

Decklan

Luis Ramone Soler Jr. 

Eleni

Anthony Robertson

Quetzali and Ixchel Lopez

Full Transcript: 

Betsy Foldes Meiman  0:04  Hi, I'm Betsy Foldes Meiman, and I'm the producer of Connectopod. When my partner, Andrea Longoria Lopez, signed us up for a booth at the Dia de los Muertos festival in Canoga Park on November 7, I have to admit, I wasn't into it. We have so much work right now finishing up with our series, "Changing the Narrative - Unhoused Youth" and prepping for next season of CTN, starting in January with the International Rescue Committee. But as usual, Andrea was right. It was a wonderful day, full of color and life and sounds, and it seems so foreign and so celebrational all after this past year and a half of just remote half life where we're all stuck in front of our screens and cut off from one another. Dia de los muertos celebrates death as a rebirth, grief as an acknowledgement of love. An ofrenda is an altar set up to honor and remember the dead people place items upon it that their loved ones loved in life, and photos and memories of them. We wanted to honor that with our booth. So we set up an audio ofrenda to record memories and tributes of loved ones of anybody that was passing by and wanted to share. Many people were too shy to record but they were eager to share memories. And we heard their stories of sadness of passing and the redemption of joy in memory and sharing stories you feel the power of the people we love to influence us to inspire us to support us in our need, and celebrate what in ourselves they saw and loved. In a way we become living breathing ofrendas. Here, then, is Connectopod's Audio Ofrenda.

Guest Carlos Fernandez  1:47  My name is Carlos Fernandez. I am from Mexico. Specifically I am from Mexicali, which is in the northern part of Mexico. The person I'm monitoring would be my father, Victor Manuel Fernandez Gardella. We moved here when I was seven years old. He passed away when I was 10 years old. But one of my most vivid memories from when I was a child. My dad taught at a high school equivalent of high school. My mom taught at an elementary school. So because they were both teachers that had summers off. So in the summer, we would leave for two and a half months. And my dad retrofitted a '76 . . . '70 something suburban with a queen bed in the back. And he retrofitted the engine so that it would run with natural gas. [It] had two tanks of natural gas and we could go for about 36 hours without stopping for gas, we would go start traveling up and down Mexico. And one of the things that we loved to do was go storm chasing, we would see lightning go traveling to the mountains and around the mountains seeing this little towns following the thunder and the echoing thunder, I remember this one time, we had stopped for the night and it started we could see the storm clouds in the in the horizon. And my dad picked me up and he used to call me "Chaparro", which means shorty, apparently I was really short when I was little. And my dad picked me up and he's like, "Chaparro, vente, vente, vente, vamos a ver! I'm gonna show you something, I'm going to show you something." And he picks me up in his arm

In this episode,  Melissa Peruch, Konnie Duong, Tanisha Gunby, and Emmanuel Paz, members of Teens Leading Change, talk about how they realized The Domestic Violence Awareness Project from concept to published graphic novel.  They worked with Samantha Guevera of StrengthUnited, a CSUN Community Agency to understand the issue. The TLC program was facilitated by Librarians (yes, capital L) Marcia Melkonian at the  Canoga Park Branch and Elisabeth Calla at the Encino Tarzana Branch.

The Domestic Violence Awareness Project will soon be  available free to LAPL cardholders on Overdrive and  in hard copy at your local library. 

The Teens Leading Change Domestic Violence Awareness Project team:

Tanisha Gunby, Yvo Ani, Eliana Fishbach, Konnie D, Alison T, Estephanie Paz, Giselle Tobon, Hatice Deniz, Helen Morales, Karol Vasquez, Melissa Peruch, Talin Guliani, Evan Burse, Rishabh Garg, Emmanuel Paz, Artina Turokh, Jessica Romo, Yededia Getahun, Ellen Kozlov, Viviene Carvajal, Timofie Timofieiev, Isabella Saeedy, and Olivia Darensbourg

Thank you Joe Foldes for mastering the audio recorded off of Zoom and handling our post production.

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Produced by Betsy Foldes Meiman

In their quest to further understand domestic violence, it far reaching effects, and viable solutions, teens Melissa Peruch, Artina Turokh, Tanisha Gunby, and Viviene Carjaval, interview Esther Neill, a  Domestic Violence Victims Advocate for Victims Assistance Program (VAP)of The City of Los Angeles.

 If you or anyone, you know, is a victim of domestic violence,

StrengthUnited, of CSUN, also has a 24/7 hotline. 818-886-0453.  The national domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7 2 3 3). 

 

Thank you Joe Foldes for mastering the audio recorded off of Zoom and handling our post production.

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Produced by Betsy Foldes Meiman

Teens Leading Change facilitated by Librarians (yes, capital L) Marcia Melkonian at the  Canoga Park Branch and Elisabeth Calla at the Encino Tarzana Branch  and Samantha Guevera of StrengthUnited, a CSUN Community Agency

We're back with the Los Angeles Public Library! This time Librarians (yes, capital L) Marcia Melkonian at the  Canoga Park Branch and Elisabeth Calla at the Encino Tarzana Branch are helping Teens Leading Change realize their plans for The Domestic Violence Awareness Project. The concept for a graphic novel and a podcast was developed over eight classes with Samantha Guevera of StrengthUnited, a CSUN Community Agency (and CA Non profit of the year!)

This episode highlights specific types of domestic abuse  as reported by Melissa Peruch, Estephanie Paz, Viviene Carjaval, Artina Turokh, Tanisha Gunby, and Isabelle Saeedy. 

 

 

 

Thank you Joe Foldes for mastering the audio recorded off of Zoom and handling our post production.

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Produced by Betsy Foldes Meiman

Andre Devancens has been a part of Connectopod since second grade. Now he's fully graduated from Van Nuys High School and on his way to Cal Poly Pomona for Journalism.   In Andre's 2019 interview that was a part of our Teen Mental Health project at CSUN,  he talked about coming out as pan sexual, and his inspirations and aspirations. So as part of our 'grateful for our grads' June we revisited that interview and followed up with Andre to see how that interview stacks up to his present experience and to find out where he is headed now. We can't wait to see Andre's open-minded intelligence and energy out in the world! Thank you for all of your work with Connectopod. Congrats Andre!

topics: Coming out as a teen, journalism, graduating high school, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Daryl Davis

For more of Naia, The LA Master Chorale/Van Nuys HS  project visit: 

https://lamasterchorale.org/oratorio-project