November 6, 2012
First Time Voter Interview in Fresno, Cali.
Can I have your name and age?
Christopher Deleon and I’m 18 years old.
How would you describe this experience?
It was ok, I think I was prepared for it. I think it goes by fairly quickly.
Did you vote for any of the propositions or only for president?
I voted for the propositions and the president.
Did you have any information about any of the propositions and candidates before you voted?
I did research on the ones that were unclear to me.
Those are the ones I looked up on the internet and tried to see what they were.
How influential was the media?
Somewhat influential, mostly on the candidates. If I hadn’t heard of them it would’ve been hard to choose.
For the next election, how can you prepare yourself?
Actually pay attention to who’s running for what. I only knew who was running for president.
Why did you come out to vote?
I think it’s important to have a say in politics Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean you’re not a politician. Everyone is their city should be a politician because everyone should be involved in their government. They can’t complain about anything, if they didn’t vote.
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.
