Action Youth Media (AYM) offers free out-of-school media arts courses and paid internships to middle and high school students, providing inclusive spaces where they can discover their interests, develop skills, prepare for their futures, and thrive. Since the program’s founding in 2005, more than 5,000 students have participated in programs that use media to advocate for change in their communities. AYM is committed to celebrating individuality through shared stories. Programs at AYM are intentionally designed, with a deep understanding that media is a powerful tool in community building, especially in a world that values conformity.

Participants

ARTxFM Next Wave: Teen Academy is a radio learning adventure based in the home studios of WXOX in Louisville, Kentucky. The academy provides area students with the skills they need to become professional broadcasters. Harnessing the power of radio, these students amplify their voices to influence listeners in positive ways. After mastering the WXOX studio equipment and memorizing FCC regulations, Next Wave DJs begin hosting weekly radio programs which can be heard in Louisville on 97.1 FM, worldwide online ART FM Next Wave speaks to—and for—a new wireless generation.

Participants

The Deanwood Radio Broadcast Youth Journalism Program educates young people about the importance of broadcast journalism and the role that it can play in bringing about change in communities. Based in the Deanwood neighborhood east of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., the program equips students with skills in research, interviewing, and production that prepare them for careers in journalism, communications, and related fields. Through a partnership with the Congressional Award Foundation (CAF) and the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment, students host a podcast, Elevating Youth Voices. The partnership with CAF offers students mentorship from board members and the chance to earn Congressional Award certificates and academic scholarships.

Participants

Ghetto Film School (GFS) is an award-winning nonprofit founded in 2000 to educate, develop, and celebrate the next generation of great storytellers in Los Angeles. Through a partnership with the Huntington library and art museum, high school- and early college-age GFS filmmakers spend fifteen weeks immersed in a study of the Huntington’s collections to create short films drawn from their own perspectives. These films reveal the continuing relevance of historical art to contemporary creativity.

Participants

Through media arts education, Wide Angle Youth Media collaborates with and amplifies the voices of Baltimore youth to engage audiences across social divides. The organization offers workshops, summer training sessions, and state-registered apprenticeships in video production, design, animation, photography, and other media. Its programs inspire creativity and instill confidence in young people, supporting them to navigate school, career, and life. Since 2000, Wide Angle has worked with over 8,000 youth from across Baltimore City who have produced thousands of media projects about their lives and communities.

Participants

Chloe Barnett is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker. Her film Women of the Watershed documents a young woman journeying to the source of the Everglades headwaters to better understand the historic challenges of water management and pollution that now threaten this fragile ecosystem. Along the way she meets a new generation of advocates who are redefining the balance of women in conservation. Women of the Watershed won an Emmy in 2024 and has since been syndicated to PBS stations and online.

Rameshwar Bhatt is an aspiring filmmaker living in Ahmedabad, India. Born in 2001, he began making films at the age of thirteen. Some of his films have won awards from the state government of Gujarat, UN – World Bank Connect4Climate group, and UN-ISDR. He cares deeply about environment and changing climate. Many of his films deal with the gripping reality of vernacular Indian stories and action. Bhatt likes the idea of capturing extraordinary in the ordinary.

Samuel Habib is a college student and an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. The New York Times Op-Doc My Disability Roadmap (2022), a short film which he co-directed, was a Critics Choice Awards nominee. He has served as a story consultant on the nationally broadcast film Mr. Connolly Has ALS, worked as a Concord Monitor newspaper columnist, interviewed U.S. presidential candidates, and presented nationally on disability rights, inclusive education, and his transition to adulthood—themes he explores in the feature-length film The Ride Ahead (2024).

Habib uses a wheelchair for mobility and a communication device (as well as his voice and gestures) to express himself. In addition to exploring his current and future academic and career options, he navigates significant, chronic health challenges due to his underlying GNAO1 Neurodevelopmental Disorder.