Learning and growing together

Three weeks into the partnership project and things are taking form. After the Upstarters had their first on air experience this past Saturday on RMR, we’re all just want to see this project succeed. There’s a lot of potential to be unpacked from this partnership, not only from the Upstarters but the fourth year students as well. I mentioned two weeks ago that as the group of journalism students, we can gain professional experience from participating in the partnership.  I overlooked the mentoring experience that could be gained here.  See these young people are learning to make their place in the world, and we have given them a platform from which they can speak and be heard. One thing we need to impart on them is that there’s a responsibility that comes with this privilege.  If they’re able to nurture this privilege and use it efficiently they are well on their way to becoming young leaders.  And that’s essentially what the Upstart theme of The Youth Speaking to Power is about.

We try to introduce the Upstarters to tools that they can use beyond the radio show. This week we introduced them to blogging, this is something we’ll be doing with them from now on. It will be used as a method of reflection, reflecting on the activities set aside for them in the Wednesday workshops and for the shows on Saturdays. This is subsequently a chance for them to improve their writing skills.  It makes me happy to see them take part wholeheartedly in the activities we do and how they meticulously do their homework, some even giving themselves time to draw squiggly pink borders on their A4sheets of paper.  It’s also sad to see that they’re on the other side of the digital divide and something as simple as typing a 200word blog post is a difficult feat for them. During our blogging session these Upstarters went from confident and ambitious youngsters on the radio to being intimidated and timid in front of the computer. They took it in their stride though, they didn’t back down or ask if they could write their entries by hand.
The four that attended Saturday’s workshop have forged a friendship that will see them through this year, you hear them share jokes and encouraging each other. Sinovuyo is particularly shy but finds her spirits and confidence when she is with the other girls and they’ve warmed to her quite timid character. The other girls guide her along and encourage her, I picked this up when they were being interviewed on RMR. They were patient with her as she would slowly come toward the mic and speak in her very soft voice. I also noticed that during her interview she described herself as shy and confident, and I see when she’s in a group with the other girls she taps into her confident side more.
There’s a certain star quality about Anesipho, from the word go she expressed an interest in being behind the mic, presenting. When opportunity showed itself at RMR, she was not shy at all. Her voice works well on air and she speaks well too.  She engaged the anchor, not shying away from telling an anecdote about why she is scared of flying mantises.

 The Yung Amplified team is lucky to be working with an Upstarter who took the Upstarter of the year title last year. Ziphozihle is almost unstoppable, on top of wanting to be a forensic scientist she also wants to one day design her own car. I think we are working with a young wonder woman here, it seems with every workshop she is breaking loose of her shyness.  This is something she alluded to during her interview on air, saying that her three years of being an Upstart member have allowed her to be able to speak freely and openly before people

 During the Wednesday session I worked closely with Anelisa and Roche editing their profiles.  I was impressed to arrive on Saturday and Annelisa had reworked her whole profile, fixing the parts that needed retouching. She is adamant on making this partnership work for her, she has approached me several times enquiring on things she doesn’t understand.

 I found that from the beginning Roche exuded more confidence than the other Upstart kids and he was upfront from the very start that he is interested in the technical side of radio. From reading his profile during the Wednesday session he has a sneaky funnybone about him, this would add a fun element to the team. Roche doesn’t quite engage with the other Upstarters as I have imagined he would. Sometimes he chooses to keep to himself, I certainly hope that with time he will make an effort to collaborate with the others.

Unfortunately after our Wednesday session, one of the Upstart boys was involved in an accident while riding his bicycle home. Thobani wasn’t able to join us on Saturday as he is recovering after the accident, he should be joining us for the next session.

Getting the Upstarters on air primarily served to introduce the group to the Yung Amplified audience. We also wanted to give them the opportunity to experience live radio, I think this experience will allow them to generate ideas that would work for a live show. For now they see their radio slot as a music show, we need to channel their energies so that they start seeing their radio slot as a space to create and disseminate radio content. We’ll be following closely the print version of Upstart as primary way to generate content, there’s also the various out of town workshops and trips that Upstarters will be going on as another source of content. Overall , things are starting to come together slowly, after relooking at the design and structure of the Yung Amplified show, we’re now making sure that we work on the skills necessary to create the content we’d like for the show.

 An important logistical component of this partnership working well was transport, it seems our transport for the remainder of the partnership has been sorted, this after a slight hic-cup which almost led to the team not being able to meet this weekend. We have been assured that we won’t have to worry about transport, this is a great relief because on rainy days it would be difficult for the Upstartersto walk to the workshops. This also allows us to give the show our undivided attentio