Spring Break 2010: Service Learning from Teens Turning Green

April 3, 2010 While media reports often churn out attention-getting stereotypes of spring break scenes of rowdy youth antics under the auspices of ‘what sells,’ to feed the money machine, we all too often don’t see the coverage of ‘alternate spring breaks’ and a major shift that’s taking hold in the cultural zeitgeist of service learning and youth. As I head out on spring … [Read more...]

Socially Responsible Picture Books: Dream Village Part 2

Mar. 23, 2010 Today I was honored to be the guest speaker at SFSU Professor Betsy Blosser’s Media & Social Change class, and brought a gazillion examples of cool work being done in the digital sphere ranging from Beth Kanter’s social media fundraising for Cambodian orphans to our own collaborative global effort with The Age of Conversation co-authors to benefit Variety the … [Read more...]

One Teen’s View on Going Green: Use Eco as an Equalizer

August 27, 2009 One of my Title I school students said, "We recycle in my house...it's called hand-me-downs." Hmn. Since then, I've been attuned to the "green is for those who HAVE green" eco-mindset and kept track of echoes in our cross-cultural moshpit of a neighborhood. In part two of our Teens Turning Green piece, I’d asked Shaping Youth 16-year old writing intern … [Read more...]

Back to School: Are Teens REALLY Going Green?

August 20, 2009 Leave it to a teen to tap into the core eco-issue behind why there’s tons of talk about green teens but not enough ‘walking the walk’ toward sustainable lifestyle shifting ‘en masse.’ In 2007, when JupiterResearch cited 38% of teens caring about the environment and 15% being ‘hardcore green’ opinion leaders and digizens in a report, “Green Teens: Reaching a … [Read more...]

Text Monster: Teen Tips On Digital Dating Obsessions

April 28, 2009 "Whatcha doin’? Who you with? Text me! Text me back!" When does 'caring' become controlling textual harrassment? What happens when the ‘connectivity’ that takes the form of digital grunts, ‘sup?’ ‘hey,’ ‘lol’ gets annoying even to kids themselves? “That’s not cool” is a fun Ad Council riff using sock puppets, tin can art, comedic fruit and graphic mixed … [Read more...]