Young Activists Step Up At Cross Keys High School!

Yesterday I was invited by several Cross Keys High School students who I've worked with Through Student Career Alternatives Program.

The meeting was called in response to the impact that the viral youtube video Kony 2012 has had on Cross Keys students.

The meeting was really well attended and I was super encouraged at how politically astute all the students were. They had already developed the analysis that the Invisible Children organization that put together the Kony 2012 campaign was problematic, but the students wanted to harness the hunger for social change that the viral video evoked in their classmates.

We spent some time talking about local issues that students would like to address including immigration reform, homophobia, homelessness, and teen pregnancy. Several of the students suggested meeting again and attempting to pull in students from other area high schools.

Everyone in the meeting committed to come out to this Saturday's rally against SB 469 which criminalizes disent.

I'm really encouraged to see students stepping up to create the Atlanta they want to live in.

Please spread the world about the next meeting which is open to all Atlanta area teens!

Click here for meeting details

Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Cross Keys High School Gets SCAP'D

Today marks a special occasion for AFSC's Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) for two different reasons. First, this was our first day of tabling this school year, second, this marks our fourth year working with students and faculty at Cross Keys High School! When I first started making monthly visits to the school today's current senors were freshmen. It's been really awesome to watch Cross Keys students grow up into adults while watching SCAP grow as a project as well.

Today was about reuniting with familiar smiling faces in the student body, as well as faculty. Each year we've been at Cross Keys we've escalated our presence on the campus, we're excited about what that's going to look like this year.

Today we decided to focus on promoting SCAP's new monthly events, which are youth planned and facilitated. This year every month SCAP will be hosting an event somewhere in Atlanta. We also promoted our migrant youth voice video workshop to students. The workshop is designed to give students a crash course in video production with hope that youth will record, edit, and share their own stories. Students get paid a $25. stipend to attend the five hour workshop.

We'll be back at Cross Keys next month and we can't wait!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Be The Change Cross Keys High School!

Today marked our last visit to Cross Keys High School this year, as they prepare for summer break. Cross Keys has always had a very special place in my heart as it was the first school to welcome Student Career Alternatives Program with arms wide open. We've been working with Cross Keys for three years now! I've literally watched these students grow up.

Today we focused on promoting our third annual "Be The Change" Youth Convergence, and we were excited to be joined by several students who helped us hype the convergence to their friends. This year's convergence seems more important, more crucial than years past. There are so many issues effecting youth in Georgia right now that talking up the convergence has become an easy task. All we have to do is mention immigration or education budget cuts and everyone is paying attention, asking how they can get involved. High school students are aware of the injustices that go down every day in our communities, in fact I'd say most students at Cross Keys are down to resist the systems of violence and oppression that control our minds, bodies, and communities. It's often difficult to find a space where youth are given the space to imagine the community they want to live in, the tools to create the community they want, and the freedom to build there own movements.

We hope that this year's convergence can start a lot of those conversations.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Students Prepare for "It's My Life" Art Contest!

Today Josie and I headed out to one of our favorite schools in the metro area, Cross Keys, to talk with students about cool non-military post high school options. We also made sure to hype our 2nd annual, "It's My Life" Art Contest.

Last year we received several submissions from Cross Keys Students and this year it seems like we'll be receiving even more. We had multiple students let us know that they have already been working on pieces to enter. We were even treated to a mini concert by an enthusiastic student that plans on winning the contest with a song he's working on.

The deadline for submission is March 14th, so there's still time to enter something! Check out the this link for details about the contest!
scapatl.org


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Bringing Non-Military Options To Cross Keys High School

Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP) participated in it's third career fair at Cross Keys High School yesterday. SCAP has had lots of opportunities to set up exhibits at Atlanta area high schools over the past two years but Cross Keys is always a special experience. The school just always seems to do the best they can with little resources, and their counseling staff goes a little farther to make sure the student body has a many options presented for their post high school paths as possible.

It's SCAP's belief that the more opportunities a community has access to, the more they thrive. Presenting those opportunities can be a challenge at Cross Keys these days. They have one of the largest percentages of undocumented students in the Atlanta metro area. With the recent decision to essentially bar undocumented students from attending five of the most popular publicly funded colleges, many Cross Keys students have just had several opportunities taken off the table for them. Sadly the board of regents will likely push for a similar decision on every public university in the state, despite the fact that undocumented students currently pay out of state tuition, and implementing a check on status for all Georgia college students will cost thousands of dollars.

One of the great things about SCAP is that we focus on the many under promoted post high options, options that are almost never talked about on high school campuses. Our "It's My Life"(http://scapatl.org/page1/page1.html) career guild explores dozens of opportunities to build careers that don't require a social security card, or a college degree.

Yesterday we gave out dozens of copies of "It's My Life" and talked up Atlanta based opportunities with students, faculty, and parents.

We also had the chance to discuss the realities of life in the military, and give folks the real deal on the legalities of the enlistment contract and how the benefits promised by recruiters often play out in real life. Our hope is that young people have all the information before they enlist into military service.

We also had the chance yesterday to award a bright young man, Javier Garcia, with a pair of tickets to the Atlanta Aquarium. The tickets were donated by SCAP organizer Josie Figueroa.

SCAP Needs Your Help

We have more schools to cover then we have volunteers. If you're interested in becoming involved with SCAP please email scapatlanta@gmail.com.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Back to School With SCAP!

One of AFSC Atlanta's most exciting projects is the Student Career Alternatives Program(SCAP). Over the last few years SCAP has visited dozens of high schools, hosted various youth focused concerts, and facilitated a successful city wide art contest all with one goal in mind, promoting the numerous under promoted non-military post high school options for Atlanta youth.

This is an exciting time of year for SCAP organizers as high school students are settling into the 2010/2011 school year. This month SCAP will be tabling at many Atlanta area high schools for the first time but before we make new friends, it's been really awesome revisiting some of our old ones. This past week we got to table at Cross Keys High School for the first time this year. This marks our third consecutive year of tabling at Cross Keys. We've literally gotten to watch some of these student grow up. Many of them know me by first name and go out of their way to check in with me and see what's knew with SCAP. I came with over 50 "It's My Life" books and ran out of them with in the first half of lunch time. We also gave out over 30,"Beofre You Enlist" DVD's and students took tons of literature.

One thing that I spent a lot of time promoting to students on this visit is AFSC's national video youth contest. Check out this video or the link below for more information:



One thing that made the "trillion dollar question" extremely relevant was the financial crisis that Cross Keys has had to deal with. The cafeteria staff has been cut in half, causing some kids to get their food two minutes before the bell rings. the remaining food workers have to do twice as much work for the same pay. there's also been teacher lay offs, and many departments no longer have administrative support. Several students picked up copies of our one minute for peace fold out which highlights the national budget and they expressed confusion that we could be spending over a trillion dollars on unpopular wars in far away lands while de-funding programs of social uplift, like education, in our communities.

You'll notice that I didn't get any footage of students on this visit. That's simply because I have yet to get permission to do that and want to wait till I do, last year they gave us permission and I'm sure they will again this year.

To learn more about SCAP visit: www,scapatl.org

For More info on the "If I Had A Trillion Dollars.." Youth Video Contest Visit: http://afsc.org/action/if-i-had-trillion-dollars-youth-video-contest


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee