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I was 8 years old on the day of September 11, 2001. I remember getting ready for school. I was living with my grandma at the time. The TV was on and I remember watching the news. When I got to school, everyone was talking about the attacks. I’m not sure, but I think later in the day we did the pledge of allegiance again after the regular one. I remember watching the news and seeing people hanging out of the windows of the towers.
I was seven years old. I don’t recall much of this event, but to look back on it now, I realize how surprising and scary that day was. It’s crazy to think that a tragic thing like the destruction of two huge buildings in New York could happen so suddenly without anyone knowing. When I watched news footage of 9/11, I just remembered back when I was in third grade and my teacher was having a discussion about it. It was probably in 2002, but I didn’t really have an opinion about it then because I was a kid and didn’t know what was going on. But the fact that a group of terrorists could cause this kind of damage to our powerful nation probably made us look vulnerable.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
