New Media and Technology for Philadelphia Teens

First, a look back at our first school year of new media programs for teens:

From September 2012 to June 2013, Mighty Writers 2.0 programs engaged and served 108 Philadelphia teens (ages 13-18) through single-session and long-term (4-8 sessions) new media workshops. Classes included "Philly Photo Day," "iBlog: Her City, Her Voice" and "How to Get a Job in TV News." Over the course of each workshop, students created digital content showcased on Mighty Post (mightypost.org), our news blog and social network with content generated by Philadelphia high school students.

And now it's summer.

This week, we launched Summer on South, our first-ever two-week summer writing and digital journalism camp for rising 9th and 10th graders. Summer on South runs Monday through Thursday, 9am-3pm, July 8 to July 1. Twelve Philadelphia high school students have been sharpening their writing skills (and having big fun) by joining other city teens for this eight-day summer experience. Each day begins early with fun creative writing exercises. Next, local journalist (and former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist) Annette John-Hall takes over with her popular sportswriting class. The day concludes with Andrea Bullard, director of new media programs at Mighty Writers, teaching her blogging workshop. We’ve also been lunching with guest writers from local publications and blogs. So far: Steve Volk from Philadelphia Magazine, novelist Liz Moore ("Heft") and Philadelphia Daily News crime reporter Morgan Zalot.

And we've got more new media classes on the way. Stay tuned!