November 16, 2010.
It is so wonderful and amazing to me how many at-risk teen girls (and women mentors) have been uplifted from a small, passionate idea that Step Up Women’s Network helped me support back in 2006 via the “I Dream to”/Photojournalism for Girls program. Over 250 girls in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago have been able to interview and photograph a woman they dream to be. Myself and all the instructors have wonderfully lead them, Step Up Women’s Network supports our efforts and inspire us to go further, and the girls commit – learn confidence, life skills to get them on their feet, and produce beautiful, resonant work in the process. The thing is, this program (and ones like it) have to keep happening… the dialogue needs to continue between these at-risk girls and the women who have come up ahead of them.
In 2006 I was very fortunate to finally meet the nationally recognized non-profit, Step Up Women’s Network (www.suwn.org), while I was covering backstage at the 2006 NAACP Image Awards for WireImage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Step Up was there (specifically Alexa Brandt, their membership manager at the time) doing outreach to the VIPs.
Such as to actress Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, etc – (below):
Taraji P. Henson wears a bracelet in support of Step Up Women's Network
Alexa Brandt, Senior Program Manager of Membership, Step Up Women's Network talks to actresses Katherine Heigl and Kate Walsh backstage at the 2006 NAACP Image Awards
Actress Katherine Heigl, backstage at the 2006 NAACP Image Awards, wears a bracelet in support of Step Up Women's Network.
Actress Kate Walsh, backstage at the 2006 NAACP Image Awards, wears a bracelet in support of Step Up Women's Network.
That meeting led me to meet Jamie Kogan, Step Up’s tremendous Senior Program Manager / Community and Girls’ Programs. I volunteered taking photos at a class they already had going, and that summer I mentored a girl. I was volunteering at another kids’ photo program, but was dismayed at their lack of interest in putting current digital cameras in the students’ hands, or having them work on computers while at the same time saying their organization was helping to advance these kids’ job skills.
Soon Jamie asked me if I’d be interested in leading a photo class but she wanted something new. I decided if I was going to do it, I wanted the girls to be able to use what would be their newfound photo skills as a way to help their future selves. Step Up’s strength is that it is a dedicated networking organization; it helps women from varied professions bridge their gaps by holding events ; by getting them together to talk. It’s precisely what I wanted more of as a young girl: that ability to make an introduction to all the different types of people I dreamed to be … and it was precisely the strength I could bring them from my career as an Entertainment Photojournalist.
I had been helping a lot of people enhance their publicity via my photojournalism coverage, and now was my chance to help young women (who face insurmountable economic and emotional odds) find a stronger voice and direction towards their future selves. Jamie Kogan, Senior Program Manager of Step Up, took to it immediately. I continue to be so thankful for her appreciation of it. I drafted the semester program for our girls. A web-page of the girls’ meetings with their mentors would be the final project. I guided our camera and equipment purchases, and brought in our additional instructor, Maya Myers, as well (thanks to an introduction by a mutual photo friend Sarah Poust). Our first classes were for pre-teen girls at LA Leadership Academy grade school. Each week we taught the girls something new about how to use a camera (shutter speed, composition), as well as how to best interview a subject and everything that came with it (firm hand-shake, eye contact, a worthwhile goodbye).
We scheduled for each girl to meet with her mentor (most of the women were members of Step Up Women’s Network, a few we introduced to the program given a girl’s request for a specific photo/interview subject). Maya and I drove the girls all over Los Angeles to meet up with all the amazing women, and drove them home afterwards. The economic disparity between a mentor’s workplace and a girl’s home was striking; just a half hour away from each other and an economic world apart. Some girls talked about how their family members – brothers and sometimes even mothers – would tell them they shouldn’t bother wanting to be anything because they didn’t have a chance. It’s a horrible cycle; thankfully there are organizations such as Step Up Women’s Network to bring enriching after-school programs into public schools to try to break it.
A photo of our first semester’s two classes below, and then the introductions and photographs of the girls:
I Dream to/Photojournalism for Girls 1st Semester at LA Leadership Grade School
Step Up Women's Network Photojournalism for Girls student, Miracle Johnson, and veterinarian Dr. Michele Karron at VCA Hospital, 2007.
Attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Kimberly Buffington and "I Dream to" student Linda Fuentes
Marleni Davila goes on her "I Dream to"/Photojournalism for Girls Step Up Women's Network project interview at Guerra Gutierrez Mortuary with Liza Saenz on 2/15/2008.
Step Up Women's Network "I Dream to"/Photojournalism for Girls student LaShanae Thomas interviews breast cancer surgeon Robina Smith at USC's Outpatient Clinic on February 27, 2008.
Here are photos from the 2008 Los Angeles “I Dream to”/Photojournalism for girls Gallery Show at the Helm’s Bakery space in Culver City – where the girls got to show off their websites and prints to their families and mentors (prints and framing made possible thanks to Kim Creighton, Matthew Rolston’s long time print manager).
Step Up "I Dream to"/Photojournalism for Girls student Genola Thomas with her project at the 2008 Step Up Gallery show.
"I Dream to"/Photojournalism for Girls student Dayana Masariegos and Senior Program Manager Step Up Women's Network Jamie Kogan.
Sr. Prog. Mngr./Step Up Jamie Kogan, "I Dream to" prorgram creator / photographer Amy Tierney, and 2008 co-instructor/photog Maya Myers.
2008 Gallery Show at Helms' Bakery space for Step Up Women's Network's "I Dream to"/Photojournalism for Girls program.
The girls' final projects for "I Dream to" 2008 were websites and were projected on the wall at the show.
In the summer of 2008 I introduced the New York Step Up Women’s chapter to Getty Images new Varick Street studio, NY (thanks to Peggy Willett, Community and Industry Relations, Getty Images Seattle, who really took to the program). It was there that a Summer 2008 Gallery show happened for the New York Step Up students, and it was great! I loved having Nicole Tammelleo as their instructor ! We got to share a lot of inspiration across the miles as the program progressed. Here are few images from that August 2nd, 2008 New York gallery show:
2008 "I Dream to" New York Gallery show at Getty Images' Varick Street Studio.
Lida Orzeck, Founder of Hanky Panky (short blonde hair) with New York Step Up photojournalism students.
Nicole Tammelleo, photographer and instructor of the first NY "I dream to" program with student + mentor
Here is a link to the WireImage photo coverage of the New York show at Getty Images’ Varick Street studio: www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=gls====327444
In Fall 2008 a new photographer and co-instructor, Emily Hart Roth (www.emilyhartphotography.com), came on board in Los Angeles. We were sorry to see Maya go, but glad she introduced us to Emily. Emily came with a lot of passion – and an appreciation for blogs which she wanted to share with the girls. So we changed our final project from websites to blogs.
Photographer and Co-Instructor Emily Hart Roth hugs a student
In the Fall of 2008 Step Up worked with the partner schools (LA Leadership High School and Gertz Ressler High School) to extend the program – so instead of twelve weeks we had twenty. Emily and I redrafted the program. We gave the girls more time to learn about composition and how to photograph; we also taught them how to organize their photos – rating and selecting the best via the Adobe Lightroom application. We went back to the Canon A520 cameras which, while introductory point and shoot cameras, also allowed us to teach the girls about manual controls. For the girls’ blogs, Emily wanted to use WordPress.com as she had been using it for her own blog and liked it a lot. I certainly agreed, and transferred my own blog to WordPress.
Meanwhile New York students were plugging away.
Here are some photographs from our Fall 2008 Los Angeles semester:
Fall 2008 "I Dream to" classes at Soul Studios, Los Angeles, 12/2008
Fall 2008 "I Dream to" student Frankie Jo Gonzalez gets her picture taken by mentor, actress Ashley Jones.
Fall 2008 "I Dream to" student Paola takes a picture of mentor actress Shannon Komai McClain
Immigration Attorney Victoria Duong and her mentee "I Dream to" student Gigi
Student Leslie Guzman photographs her mentor, Veterinarian Annette Le Pere at Soul Studios 12/2008.
The Fall 2008 Los Angeles’ students final blog projects can be found online here: http://stepupphoto.wordpress.com
A review of the program can be found here on Livebooks Resolve blog: blog.livebooks.com/2009/05/teaching-teens-to-photograph-role-models-then-become-them/
A video of the girls, mentors + volunteers of the I Dream to program can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/ajaniperkins#p/u/0/qtqMaZNGy1I
Now, four years later, my baby (as it were) “I Dream to”/Photojournalism for Girls has become a signature program for Step Up Women’s Network. Every Fall a new class of freshman gets a chance to choose “I Dream to” as an after-school class, learn the math and light of photography, the writing and social skills of interviewing and the confidence to meet with anyone, anywhere.
I have continued on as an Ambassador for the program, while we brought in new instructors: Laura Grier (www.beautifuldayphotography.com), Sarah Horowitz and Melissa Fargo. Luckily Emily Hart Roth taught at the new, additional school that Step Up partnered with: the Environmental Science and Technology High School where we held our LA mentor days this year on December 5th and 12th, 2009. Photos and video to post soon. We also had SanDisk http://www.sandisk.com, the global imaging company (who I encouraged to give an in-kind donation of SD camera cards and card readers to the program) come to film and interview the girls and women on their experience with the program.
The “I Dream to”/Photojournalism for Girls photos were displayed at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, and decorate the National Step Up Women’s Network offices:
"I Dream to" photos show at the Pacific Design Center, Nov. 18, 2009.
"I Dream to" photo projects show at the Pacific Design Center, Nov. 18, 2009.
"I Dream to" photos at the entrance to Step Up's national office in Los Angeles.
"I Dream to" photos permanently hang in Step Up Women's Network's national office.
More photos of the girls and stories of Chicago and New York classes to come !
Thank you for learning about the program. I hope it serves as inspiration for you to come on board as a mentor for one of the girls if you are in one of Step Up’s cities – or, if not, to start a program of your own like it in your own city.
Amy Tierney / Thrive Images 