By Carey Dunne, 24, reporting from Brooklyn, NY, on a publishing project that transforms pages—and lives.
In high school, it can be all too easy to feel like you don’t have a voice. You’re often at the mercy of grownups who seem to think they know better than you. Outlets for sharing opinions that are truly your own and stories with a community wider than your closest friends (and more thoughtful than Internet trolls) can be hard to come by.
That’s why Alliance Magazine is so important: It's a magazine, as in a print magazine you can hold in your hands, that's written, edited, designed, and marketed by high school-age students in Fresno, California. They’re members of the Men and Women’s Alliance Program, which aims to identify the most at-risk kids in the city's public high schools and, through workshops and team-building exercises, helps them develop the skills they need for success in the classroom, their careers, and their personal lives.
Vince Bailey, who teaches in the summer-intensive Columbia Publishing Course (east coast) and is a partner at Impact Publishing (west coast), has been working for years to develop the magazine workshop in the economically hardest-hit areas of Fresno, the second-largest school district in California. The impressive result of their efforts is Alliance Magazine, which lets students shed the pigeon-holing "at-risk youth" label and instead identify as publishing pros. Putting together a magazine to be proud of has led to a serious boost in the kids' belief in themselves and what they can accomplish. Graduates from last year's pilot program are now enrolled in college, some majoring in journalism and graphic design.
“The transformation that has taken place in these kids, in the short time I've worked with them, has been remarkable,” Bailey says. “We've taken kids that the school system had given up on and are watching them become confident, assertive, career-driven young men and women.”
To keep their mission strong and keep publishing, Alliance Magazine is currently raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign. Donate here, watch the video, and just try not to be charmed by—subscribe to—the talented team of next-generation magazine-makers.