PROVIDENCE, RI—“Students to Get a Voice on Teacher Performance Under New State Law.” “Students Unite Across Schools, Oceans to Help Uganda.” “High School Garden Project Grows into Full-Scale Urban Farm.” “New Orleans Students Have Their Say on the Oil Spill.” “Student Sleuths Use DNA, History to Trail Buffalo.”
For young people around the country, and the world, 2010 was another year of activism, entrepreneurship, problem solving. They invested in improving their schools, joining the debate over teacher evaluation and fighting cuts in education spending. They created their own media, reporting on their communities as well as international issues. They raised crucial funds for those in need—or in the case of a group of Kansas City students, built infant caskets for indigent families who had lost a newborn. They did scientific research to help move us toward energy independence. They fought for immigration reform . . . and so much more.
The young people making headlines aren’t just toeing the line—a low expectation, we believe, for what kids can do. As our Kids on the Wire bulletins demonstrate, these and other young people across the United States are keenly aware of their social responsibility in a time of dissension, in a country that many feel has lost its way, and in a world whose challenges have become truly global.
At WKCD, we stay on top of this ongoing social activism among our nation's youth. Every day, WKCD researcher Montana Miller scans newspapers nationwide for stories that testify to the dynamism and invaluable contributions of teenagers across the country—and puts them on our front page. Here are some of the best KOW's from 2010!
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Citizenship and voice
Community action and service
Environment
Media and arts
Science and health
Technology
Tolerance and understanding
High School Students Grill Candidates for Governor in Tennessee.
High school students took the first shots at the Democratic and Republican nominees to be the state's next governor, grilling Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and Jackson businessman Mike McWherter in an h... --9/1/2010
Students to Get a Voice on Teacher Performance Under New State Law.
High school students will get a chance to say what they think of their teachers under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. SB 1422, which was opposed by the California Teachers Assn., allows t... --8/26/2010
Students Draft Lesson Plan of Their Own: Youth Empowerment Project Members go to D.C.
World Vision's Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) gives young people a voice to become what they call "agents of change," dedicated to fighting poverty. Each year, YEP students from across the country ch... --7/23/2010
Arizona Immigration Law Motivating Youths to Embrace Community Activism.
The Arizona Republic reports today on a growing grass-roots movement of young Latino adults and high-school students who advocate for immigration reform that includes a form of amnesty. Young people h... --6/26/2010
NYC Students Walk Out to Save Free Transit Pass.
About 1,000 New York City high school students chanted "This is what democracy looks like!" and waved homemade signs and banners Friday as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest a plan to ... --6/14/2010
Georgia Students Back Texting and Driving Ban.
Students from Morgan County High School rang up the governor's office Tuesday over and over again. The students were afraid Governor Perdue plans to veto Caleb's Law, a law that would ban texting and ... --6/2/2010
Students Protest Inconsistent Hugging Policy.
Findlay High School's "Freedom Huggers" may indeed be free to hug next school year, in an appropriate manner. The Findlay school board is expected to vote today to change its policy on public displays... --5/24/2010
Boston School Committee OK’s Student Feedback on Teachers.
A measure that calls for students to provide “constructive feedback’’ to their teachers was approved by the Boston School Committee last night, after students had spent two years working for its passa... --5/10/2010
Hundreds of California Youth Protest Cuts in Education.
Yesterday hundreds of Mission High students, accompanied by faculty and staff, poured out upon Dolores Street near the intersection of 18th, banging drums, blowing whistles, chanting, and holding hand... --3/5/2010
Chicago Students Step Up Debate on Immigration Reform: Immigrant Youth Justice League Holds 'Coming Out' Summit.
In an event that might have been stymied by fear even a year ago, more than a dozen undocumented students will risk making their status even more public Monday at a four-hour "coming out" summit in Pi... --1/18/2010
Student-created Tutoring Business Succeeding, Growing.
Ian Anderson, 17, now a senior at Southlake's Carroll Senior High School, stumbled in an eighth-grade math class and became concerned when he couldn't overcome the classroom hurdle. "There is a stigma... --11/2/2010
Burlington Students Prepare Community Meal.
In honor of National School Lunch Week, Hunt Middle School students opened their cafeteria and gymnasium to the community to share some of the local victuals now featured in their lunch menu. Students... --10/15/2010
Miami Students Train in Mock Court to Put Teens Through Real Thing.
The bailiff was fidgety and nervous, pacing up and down the courtroom floor. But when the trial started, he quickly composed himself, stood up in the crowded room at St. Thomas University's Moot Court... --7/31/2010
Students Unite Across Schools, Oceans to Help Uganda.
Five years ago, a handful of Moeller High School students heard accounts of Ugandan children being taken from their families and forced to fight in their country's long civil war. Haunted by the stori... --7/3/2010
Providence Teenagers Expand Cupcake Store for Charity.
The popularity of City Girl Cupcake is both a blessing and a curse to the two busy teens that run the still escalating enterprise: Catherine Corrente and Isabella Veader. With the company already in f... --6/24/2010
High School Students Build, Donate Infant Caskets.
The erratic buzz of saws reverberates through the Bonner Springs High School wood shop weeks after school let out. Teacher Kris Munsch watches his students gently handle the lumber, transforming wood ... --6/20/2010
Students Bare Their Soles for One Day Without Shoes.
About 266 Burlington High school students kicked off their shoes Thursday to make a bold statement for the millions of children who live without shoes. "We heard about this thing called TOMS shoes," ... --4/11/2010
Minority Youth Nurture Middle-Schoolers in Oregon Mentor Program.
A new mentoring program for students of color in the Tigard-Tualatin School District pairs high school students with at-risk middle schoolers once a week. Intercambio, which means "exchange" in Spanis... --4/3/2010
Alameda Schools Embrace Green Programs.
283 pieces of Styrofoam. 105 cigarette butts. 107 assorted pieces of plastic. A syringe cap, a lighter, a balloon and 12 paper bags. 16 6h graders. 30 minutes. That's all the time and labor it took fo... --11/30/2010
High School Garden Project Grows into Full-Scale Urban Farm.
A small box garden started by two Windermere secondary students has grown in just three years into an urban farm and composting project approaching industrial scale. Using bicycles and two trailers, G... --11/10/2010
Students Present Water Purification Prototype at White House.
Three inventors from Oak Ridge High School presented their prototype Monday to President Obama as part of the White House Science Fair. The Oak Ridge High School InvenTeam made up of Matty Lloyd, Sam ... --10/19/2010
Students Build First Rain-Powered Fish Hatchery in Oregon.
There's a poison that's plagued fishery students at Warrenton High School for years. To get rid of it, and its deadly effect on the school's yearly crop of chinook, chum and coho salmon, students have... --8/21/2010
NJ Students Go High-Tech To Track Cherry Blossoms.
For the past month, 10 students have wandered among the thousands of cherry blossom trees in Newark's Branch Brook Park and repeated a curious routine. A student stands next to a tree with a yellow de... --8/14/2010
Michigan Teen Farms Her Backyard.
The New York Times Magazine reports on Alexandra Reau, 14, who asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to ... --7/18/2010
New Orleans Students Have Their Say on the Oil Spill.
In a few less-than-quiet classrooms in New Orleans, about 15 middle and high school students have been gathered together over the past five weeks discussing what they want to do about the BP oil spill... --7/14/2010
Students Dive at Chance to Restore Oyster Populations.
Dozens of students at the New York Harbor School who do some of their best school work on the bottom of New York Harbor. "Today I am one of the divers, so I'll be going down and surveying the area and... --6/8/2010
Students Create Learning-Focused Pond Habitat.
On Thursday afternoon, for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Ecology Club at Stonewall Jackson High School unveiled its year-long project, a sparkling pond exploration habitat behind the school. ... --4/25/2010
High School Students Helping Haitians Go Green.
A group of Chicago high school students is working to help Haiti by giving the people in one village tools to go green. They are students and environmentalists -- but mostly humanitarians, at Mother M... --4/16/2010
Environmental Charter High School in New Haven Wins Grant to Get Greener.
Common Ground High School’s 20-acre site on the flank of West Rock State Park may get a new harvest pavilion and a cistern to store rainwater, thanks to a $96,000 grant students at the environmental c... --2/23/2010
The 'Glee' Effect: Singing is Cool Again.
As one choral teacher gleefully puts it: Singing is cool again. At Harlingen High School in Texas, a group of teens who sing, dance and play musical instruments on stage and in costume are part of a n... --11/16/2010
Students Live a Bronx Film School Tale.
The New York Times reports that in July, the Ghetto Film School assembled its 2010 fellows at its headquarters in the South Bronx. The 21 teenage students eagerly took possession of high-definition vi... --9/6/2010
Student Orchestra Where the Students Are Also the Teachers.
This week the Voice of America reported on a group of high school students who started their own orchestra. The Student Symphonic Orchestra of Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington, recently celebrated ... --6/21/2010
'Da' Spill': Gulf Oil Crisis Inspires Louisiana's Excel Students to Create.
The 30 students in the four-week summer program at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, called Excel, were inspired by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to write and perform an or... --6/18/2010
Student Sleuths Use DNA, History to Trail Buffalo.
Buffalo have roamed the North American continent for thousands of years. A group of Spokane high school students are attempting to find the original DNA of the Northern Plains buffalo, or bison. Three... --10/31/2010
Students Use Technology to Play Doctor.
People gathered around Jim as he lay in a hospital bed, surrounded by gray, institutional walls, describing the pain and shortness of breath that brought him here. A young man added the information to... --10/23/2010
Nonprofit Group Makes Farmers of Urban Teens: Food Project Provides Produce to Local Markets.
Halfway between Dudley Square and Uphams Corner, 20 teenage interns work on an urban farm to produce vegetables and fruits for local shelters and farmers’ markets. US Health and Human Services Secreta... --7/15/2010
Chicago Students Soup Up School Menus.
Chicago Public School students can say goodbye to doughnuts, Pop-Tarts and daily doses of nachos and greasy pizza. The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday adopted new nutritional standards for sch... --5/4/2010
Chicago High Schoolers Demand Better Food at Board Meeting: Daily Fare that Includes Pizza, Nachos Called Sickening.
When school officials defend serving a daily menu of nachos, pizza, burgers and fries, they often say they're just giving students what they want. But an angry coalition of students plan to speak out ... --3/24/2010
High School Students Participate in “Babies Driving Robots” Project.
Four students from the Charter School of Wilmington (CSW) gained valuable research experience last summer on a University of Delaware project that has gained national attention--robot-assisted infant ... --1/7/2010
Students Launch Pumpkins for Technology Competition.
When trebuchet had its heyday back in the Middle Ages, Richard the Lionheart wouldn’t let women near his bombarding machine. But women had their way with the trebuchet Sunday afternoon in Clarence at ... --10/18/2010
American Student-Built Rocket Wins International Contest.
A small rocket built by a team of American students from Pennsylvania soared into first place in an international contest held Friday in Farnborough, England – helping the students become the first U.... --7/24/2010
High School Students Race Solar Cars Across Country.
High school teams from across the nation drove through Lubbock Monday in solar powered cars. It was all part of an 800 mile race from Dallas, Texas to Boulder, Colorado. The Hunt Winston School Solar ... --7/20/2010
Game Design No Child's Play to Students.
Tori Hepler, 18, just graduated from Upper Dauphin High School and is a budding video game artist designing the lead character and monsters in a supernatural quest to defeat the Lord of Shadows. She i... --7/7/2010
NASA Launches Rocket Dreams at Texas High School.
Seven Northwest High School students form the team of rocketeers selected to participate in NASA’s 2009-2010 Student Launch Initiative (SLI). They are designing and building a rocket that will be laun... --1/12/2010
In Portland, Teens from Bhutan Adjust to New Home.
With students who speak 52 languages, David Douglas High School frequently witnesses young immigrants walk the high wire between respecting tradition and embracing this crazy new place, Portland. The ... --11/28/2010
Openly Gay Teenager Defends Teacher at School Board Meeting.
A video of a southeast Michigan teen has caught national attention this morning after he delivered an impassioned defense of a Howell High School teacher who was disciplined for a heated exchange abou... --11/15/2010
Tucson Students Aren't Deterred by Ethnic-Studies Controversy.
In the midst of an attempt by Arizona’s legislature and top education official to shut down ethnic-studies courses in Tucson, students at Tucson High Magnet School are flocking to the courses this sch... --9/21/2010
Student Billboard Designs on Display in Times Square.
Six students from New York City's High School of Art and Design will see their designs featured on Clear Channel's "Spectacolor HD" digital billboard in Times Square. The billboards were created as pa... --6/29/2010
Wisconsin High School Students Triumph in Fight Over Indian Mascots.
A group of white Prescott High School students fought for a bill to end the use of Native Americans as mascots, carrying their concerns all the way to the State Capitol in Madison, where Gov. James Do... --5/6/2010
Students Share Experiences of Dropping Out with UCLA Doctoral Students.
Every re-enrolled dropout has distinctive issues surrounding their decision to drop out of school. Student stories range from teen pregnancy to gang participation to substance abuse to simply not feel... --4/13/2010
Support Grows In Lesbian Student's Prom Fight in Mississippi.
Following a Mississippi school board’s decision to cancel a prom after a lesbian teen expressed her desire to attend with her girlfriend; The Empowering Spirits Foundation, a national lesbian, gay, bi... --3/16/2010
Students Protest 'God Hates America' Group's Appearance at School.
A group of about 25 Menlo-Atherton High School students visited Gunn High School on Wednesday afternoon to express their support after a controversial church group protested outside the Palo Alto camp... --2/11/2010
