This morning, VOICES staff members went to the Arizona Daily Star’s headquarters to see thousands of copies of the magazine print in preparation to be inserted into tomorrow’s newspaper.

Plus, the clothes swap benefited the community, as well — all clothing left after the swap was donated to second-hand clothing store Re-Threads, one of the locally-owned businesses that share our neighborhood on E. Pennington Street.

“I’m pretty dead-on with what my story is and how I’m going to get it written, but now I have to actually get everything compiled,” said youth staff member Cecelia Geller. “It’s a little overwhelming!”

In addition to the rush of finishing stories, some youth are also working on additional projects. Martha Cordova was published in the Young Voices section of the Arizona Daily Star on March 3, and an article by Fernando Siqueiros will be published in the Primavera Foundation’s next newsletter.

The youth are also continuing work on their radio modules, which are short opinion pieces that they record for community radio station KXCI, 91.3 FM. The radio modules are the result of Voices’ new partnership with KXCI, RadioActivism, and they will begin playing in late May. Look for more information about this project on our website soon.

110 Degrees would also like to welcome its newest youth staff members: Cecelia Geller, John Kramer, Rosemary Coronado, and Kristian Bulmer. We are also thrilled to have previous 110 Degrees contributors Edward Brown and Willow Wells now on staff as well. What a great staff!

Busy! Busy! Busy! The deadline for the first draft is quickly approaching here at Voices, and everyone is working away! The first draft is really the time where people begin to see a good outline of their stories. 1,000 words sound like an awful lot, but with everyone’s’ ideas overflowing for their stories usually the writing needs to be cut down some.

Last Thursday we went on a field trip to see the photo gallery “Making a Photograph - Iconic Images and Their Origins” at the Center for Creative Photography. We got to see famous works by Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Frederick Sommer, Garry Winogrand, and many others. It was a great experience to be able to see how certain photos gain such popularity through new techniques, tackling daring issues, and showing new ways to look at things (it sounds a lot like what Voices does). We were also able to see the history of the first commercial photo galleries: Limelight, the Witkin Gallery, and LIGHT.

It is truly amazing how much photography has grown in recent years. A short time ago photography was not even viewed as a true art form, and now look at where it is. I think the youth creating 110? really strive to show how far the art of photography has come through their work.

Right now we are trying to name our KXCI radio modules; if you have any awesome names please e-mail me at melinda@voicesinc.org!

Thanks for reading and please tune in next week for even more exciting Voices action!

-Melinda

This week at Voices the youth have been writing query letters, which are propositions to the editors of a paper in order to sell your story idea. They consist of a hook, information on why they want to write their topic, where it would go in the paper, what type of story it is, and a description of their photographs. This is their first lunge into the world of journalism; at this step they are testing out topics and collecting supporting information. Accompanied by many gracious volunteers and information from brainstorming, the youth are finalizing their story ideas and proposing them to the Voices adult staff.

A few of them have also started to interview experts within their topics. For example Joe Cox, a youth apprentice, interviewed Matt Griffiths from the Audubon Society about his topic of bird watching. One reason for having interviews early is to help the youth develop their story ideas and it is also to helps them later on. After they transcribe the interviews– type up what their interviewee said–they can use the quotes in their articles.

Query letters and interviews are two HUGE necessities here at Voices and for any other journalist. And so far people are working away and getting them done.

Tune in next week for another exciting debrief on a week at Voices!

Thanks for reading,

Melinda Phipps (Assistant Writing Editor/ Youth Leader)

The 110° After-School Magazine Project provides low-income, high-school-aged youth the opportunity to publish self-driven, personal and community stories in the magazine 110° – Tucson’s Youth Tell Tucson’s Stories published in the Arizona Daily Star.

Volunteers are an invaluable asset to our magazine project, and we need your help finding these qualified individuals.

We are looking for energetic, passionate, self-motivated, and responsible adults to help us mentor the magazine’s youth staff.

Who can be a volunteer?

• Volunteers mentor youth in writing, researching, interviewing, photography, editing, professional development, and life skills.

• Volunteers must have a degree in photography, journalism, writing and/or related professional experience.

• We require volunteers to commit to a minimum of 2 hours every week from October 1, 2007 through May 16, 2008.

• Youth staff work from 4-6:15 Monday through Thursday and volunteer mentoring during these hours is key to the success of our program.

Volunteers must be comfortable using collaborative mentoring techniques with youth ages 14-21. “Collaborative mentoring” in the 110° Magazine office means that mentors focus on engaging the youth staff in dialogue and critical thinking, and present their skills and knowledge as accessible resources.

Interested writing volunteer mentors should email their resumes to Katie Johnson, Writing Director, at katie@voicesinc.org and photography volunteer mentors should email their resumes to Krista Niles, Photography Director, at krista@voicesinc.org, or call 622-7458 for more information.