“Nothing beats a failure like a try.”

–  Araiye Thomas-Haysbert

Which living person do you most admire?

Oprah.  She is just a powerful figure – she is a role model to me.

What is your idea of happiness?

Seeing my mom smile.  I think the happiest moment I’m going to have is when she gives me a hug after coming off the stage at graduation.  I think that’s going to be the happiest moment of my life. 

What is your most treasured possession?

This locket my mom gave me.  She gave me and my little sister our own locket.  She just . . . kissed it and to me that sealed it . . . her presence is there always.

Araiye hesitates when asked where she is from.  She was born in Sacramento, but throughout her seventeen years she has moved almost too many times to count.  Together, Araiye, her siblings and her mother were homeless throughout her freshman and sophomore years in high school, causing her to attend six different schools in two years.  While experiencing a continuous process of transition, Araiye began to notice the extreme inequity that existed between the schools within affluent Sacramento communities, such as Elk Grove, and disenfranchised areas of South Sacramento.

Even while enduring homelessness, Araiye gravitated toward community engagement and, after being introduced to Youth Engagement Coordinator Alondra Young, she became involved with Building Healthy Communities (BHC) programs and activities.  Between her sophomore and junior year in high school, she began teaching summer art classes for children.  Beyond this, she devoted time to working as a leader within the BHC’s Youth Leadership Group.  With other youth leaders, Araiye helped organize a town hall with mayoral candidates, including current mayor Darrell Steinberg.  The town hall served as a platform for young men and women to engage with mayoral candidates, fostering a “youth voice” on issues that concern families and communities.

While working with BHC youth and programs, Araiye embraced her sexual orientation and gender identity.  Coming out as a lesbian was challenging for Araiye, particularly because her mother initially had difficulty accepting her identity.  Araiye stated – in no uncertain terms – that she was “really, really depressed coming out”.  But Araiye’s advocacy work has helped her mother accept her daughter’s sexual orientation and gender expression.  In fact, Araiye is most proud of the advocacy work she has conducted around gender justice issues.  She served as President of the Gay Straight Alliance in her high school, attended Sisterhood Rising Leadership Retreats for two consecutive years, and just recently participated in the Queer and Trans Youth Summit developed by The California Endowment.  She has also attended Sisters and Brothers at the Capitol, a conference designed to strengthen leadership and advocacy skills among young leaders of color.  With these experiences as part of her life, Araiye is interested in continuing to advocate for policy that affects LGBTQ youth.

Araiye is fearless even though she is keenly aware that she faces considerable discrimination as a self-proclaimed “triple” minority:  a Black, lesbian, woman.  At only seventeen years old she has already overcome hardships many adults never have to face.  She has not simply overcome adversity, but she has persevered.  Araiye will be attending Benedict College in South Carolina in the fall, making her the first in her family to attend college.  When asked about future goals, she candidly states she has not quite figured that out yet, but confidently says, “I’m here to make a difference, to do something, be a leader – not be a statistic”.

Over the past few months, there have been reports of robberies within Sacramento generally targeted towards Asians. Victims have shared their stories on Facebook of getting robbed of their phones and purses when pulling up to their driveways and one even being shot in the leg. There have also been videos shared numerous times on Facebook showing victims getting robbed at gunpoint right in front of their own homes in broad daylight.

As an Asian living in South Sacramento, hearing and watching these stories and videos makes me angry. I hear more and more reports of robberies within Sacramento and with the culprits caught on camera. Even so, I feel like the police are not stepping up and helping out the Asian community. I know many Asians do not feel safe going home knowing that they can get robbed or even killed, including myself.

This past week, there was an incident that occurred right down the street from my house at 2 AM, where phones and purses were taken. This has caused me to be more alert and paranoid of my surroundings every time I go home, making sure I recognize every car near my house. I play out scenarios of what I can do if I was to be the next victim.
The increase of crimes has caused people to look out for one another and rise up as a community. Social media is also helping each other and acting as a modern day neighborhood watch. However, the police needs to help our community and prevent these crimes from increasing.

by Cindy Chao

Hey guys, this is Calvin from the Sac BHC Youth Media team and I just want to share about our visit to the State Capitol last week. For many of us at our team we had visited the State Capitol prior to this visit and what was excited was that Senator Dr. Richard Pan’s staff arranged a visit for us to learn about the legislation and a behind the scenes of a senator’s office. Our first stop was visiting the legislative hearing and we got to see our Senator Pan working on the floor. It was so important for us to learn about the process behind any bill and how hard the senators work to make them into law. On our second stop we got to talk with Senator Pan and take some picture and since he was in session our time with him was cut short, non the less we were excited to meet him since we saw him for the first time at the HEAT press conference a week prior and we saw how he cares for his community as he supported many community orgs and residents of Sacramento on making sure that UC Davis Health System takes Medi-Cal patients back and helps them get the services they need and deserve.

Up next we got to meet a legislative assistant and she share about her experience working with media and in the state capitol. She mentioned that it was an exciting place for her since it is a fast-phase atmosphere and she is constantly challenged to meet the needs of her boss. Gave us a behind the scenes of what we could do in our future if we end up in communications.

Overall we got a chance to almost see how many senators are supported by a team of many and their work most of the times goes unheard and unseen. For us, it was a great way to thank them and share with them our ideas and also learn from them, as an exchange of best practices was the highlight of our meeting.

With what it has to be the highlight of the trip we met an actual real-life newspaper reporter. Her name is Cynthia Moreno who works for Vida En El Valle a Spanish newspaper that serves the Latino community on many issues affecting them. But what was our highlight was been able to hear Cynthia’s story and how she ended up being a reporter. It was a very inspirational story and it also brought us to reconsider our social media activity and how people portray us via social media. Cynthia shared many best practices and experiences that we will implement and share with our team. Over all she made us look at reporters in a way we never knew them.

We also want to extend our gratitude to the people that made this trip a reality. Senator Dr. Richard Pan’s staff Claire Colon and Karen Abrego, without them this would have not been possible. Thanks for allow us the youth to visit our State Capitol in a way we had never seen it. We learn so much just from our 4-hour visit and we hope that this will become an annual visit for others to learn about our legislative system and get to meet awesome people that always work so hard and seldom get or receive their due credit. Thanks so all who made our trip possible.

Hi, my name is Jasmine Duong, and for a while now, I’ve always been passionate in nursing and health. I love making people happy and laugh similar to making videos and making your audience pleased. I’m passionate in film, but health was on a different level. I get hot headed and excited about the topic. I want to help others make changes in their lives for the better.

This whole summer I have been working with the Sac BHC Youth Media Tea, and I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself, others, and film. Originally, I joined because they focused on using social media to share meaningful messages as well as explore one of my other passions, which was filming. Health is a big issue and social media would be a great stage to address health issues. I’ve experienced a lot this summer and I made so many cool memories with the crew! They’re funny, cool, and weird people. We’ve done a variety of video projects, and each time we filmed, it’s another practice to improve and learn something new!

For my summer project, I wanted to create a video sharing my strongest passion which is health and nursing. I want to use film as my stage and share my passions and thoughts. Health is a really important topic to me.

I believe once you lose your health, you lose almost everything. You could develop diabetes, and that connects to being able to develop heart diseases, kidney failure, vision loss amputations. You could have depression because of lack of confidence or being bullied or family problems leading to eating disorders and self-harm. You could be obese and develop heart diseases and atherosclerosis, a disease where cholesterol and other substances are stuck in your arteries.

It’s all interconnected. That’s whats’ fascinating. Diseases can cause you to develop another disease or complication.

Health is something that affects all of us, including myself, I’ve learned just as much about myself through health as I have about the profession.

Health is made up of two parts: mental and physical. A good balance is needed in order to achieve good health. I’ve got to admit, I’m not the most healthiest person. I’m struggling with both parts, but this is a journey and I’m trying to better my health. I have anxiety, so I’m trying to cope and deal with this condition, as well as being slightly overweight, I’m losing weight to better my health and choosing to eat more healthier. I still do eat junk food, but in moderation.

I want people, including myself, to be aware of their health and to live the longest they can and make memories, experience, learn, and teach the next generation the past. People often say if you don’t look forward, you can never move on. That’s true, but if you never look back in the past and reflect, you never learn and you make the same common mistake that can be avoided. I’m not just refering to physical or mental health, but learning and growing as a person.

I want people to learn and make healthier choices to live a healthy and happy well-balanced life. And it’s easier said than done, which is why being healthy is such a struggle!

I want to make a difference. I want to use the knowledge I gained from school and apply it to real life. I have seen someone collapse in front of me and I stood frozen. I couldn’t do anything because at that time, I knew nothing about health. Now, I have more knowledge and I want to be someone who people can rely on. I find health and nursing really enjoyable.

Learning about health wasn’t easy because I needed to know biology and chemistry as well; It has been a really tough journey. And to be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested in health or the medical field at first. It seemed cool and amazing if I was capable of doing it, but I had no interest in pursuing the health profession. But as I continue learning more about health and seeing what I can do, I find it really enjoyable and a strong passion of mine. I keep finding myself falling more in love with this profession. I’m not confident that I’m going to make it through since nursing isn’t easy in college or in nursing school. There’s actually a lot of competition. As cliche as this sounds, I won’t give up.

I hope that the video I create will display how important nursing and health is to me.

Hello, my name is Calvin Szeto and I have been working with the Sac BHC Youth Media Team throughout this summer. I am grateful that I am part of such a wonderful team who supports each other and I plan on returning next summer. Through my summer project, I am going to put my skills to the test by doing a recap of this summer.

As I previously stated above, my summer project will be a recap from my perspective of my summer spent with the youth media team.  I have always been intrigued of professional photos and films. Going into this program, I was nervous of who I would meet and what I would encounter, but they helped me learn new skills and taught me how to use professional equipment. This summer has been memorable as my team and I have all bonded together through numerous activities and events, such as attending the Boys and Men of Color Summit, and Friday breaks. Furthermore, I would love to show everyone not only how my summer was, but how much I have learned and progressed throughout the year.

Not only I have taught myself, but my peers as well. My first day coming here, I had some personal experience with a DSLR and editing, but not a lot. I had a small test to see what myself and my other intern at the time, Jasmine, could do. Both of us had decent footage, but we both knew that both of us needed obvious improvement. Within that first week, we had went to the Girls on the Rise Conference. I had met two new interns, Breanna and Matthew. Editing the video I learned how Jasmine’s and my styles of editing were different. Our second event was the Block Party presented by the Crocker Art Museum. Alberto, Bobby, Jasmine, and I attended and filmed. The Block Party was live and vivid, and editing the video felt like a breeze as I had practice using Final Cut Pro. Through that event, we had seen one of my classmates Vanna. A week or so had passed by, and I heard that two new interns were coming, the following day, Caleb, Malika, and Weyman had came. I had already known Weyman and Malika, so it was a refreshing experience as I had not seen them in a while. Caleb was a new person that I had met, I initially did not like him, but the day after I grew to like him. We had training from RYSE in Richmond, and I learned how everyone’s style of editing was like. Then, we attended the Boys and Men of Color Summit. There were mistakes made by all of us on the crew, but we pulled through together as a team. Within that same week, Vanna had joined the team, and we made two others videos, Pokevote and the Full House intro. I decided to partake in one video, but both were recorded and edited by me. I am proud that I was able to produce both within a day. Breanna was finished with her part, so we made the Full House intro/HCC video for her. Pokevote was to get the message to vote but also be trendy as Pokemon go is a hit now. Finally, all of us on the team have our own personal projects, so stay tuned! I hope you will enjoy how summer sixteen was for me!

Thanks to all! The chances are high but possibilities are endless…

Some point in our life we have all experienced stress. It could be from starting your essay the night before it is due or interviewing for a new job, but what exactly is stress? The American Physiological Association defines stress as “the feeling of being overwhelmed, worried, or run-down.” Sometimes this “feeling” can control your life by affecting your productivity or and the way you handle things. You may not know this but stress can also affect your physical health. Stress can make it difficult to breathe, cause nausea, and increase the risk of heart disease.

My name is Malika You and I am a senior in high school. Senior year is stressful because there is so much to do, but so little time. I am going to have to start applying for colleges, learn how to manage and make money, and start driving. My friends and family struggle with stress and even sometimes to a larger extent. I know that there are many teenagers out there with the same problem so for my summer project I want to help those who suffer from stress try to learn how to manage it. I will give tips on what to do when under stress and why you should control the problem instead of ignoring it. I hope that you will learn something new and use it to your advantage to live a less stressful life.

Hi, my name is Vanna Hoang, and I am from the Sacramento BHC Youth Media Team. For about a year now, I’ve been practicing and learning how to dance. As time had passed, I have learned that many people are affected physically and mentally from dancing. Many people dance, and I want to discover and learn even more as I keep on dancing.

For my summer project, I want to open up a small part of the dancing world to those who are not into dancing. I was first interested in dancing when I went to dance shows because a friend had encouraged me to go, and dancing seemed really fun afterwards. I still go to shows, but I do not perform in them because I do not believe that I am good enough.

Of all the kinds of hip hop dancing, the main five kinds are social dances, boogaloo, breaking, popping, and locking. I do best in popping and locking. My summer project will not be just about the two dances I specialize in, but it will show as much of the dancing world that I experience when I attend shows and meet-ups.

“I am a rebel, with a cause.” – Nina Simone

My name is Shakeya Bell, and I am the new Administrative Assistant for Sacramento Building Healthy Communities. I’ve been living in Sacramento for about 20 years, and have been working in this field for about 8 years.. One thing I love about working in this field is, interacting and engaging the community. I firmly believe that anything is possible, no matter where you come from. 

I plan on bringing nothing but enthusiasm, and fresh ideas on how we can empower the area that we serve. My hobbies consist of playing with my niece Jordyn, meeting new people, and trying new foods.

My name is Vanna Hoang and I am an incoming junior at West Campus High School. My hobbies consist of watching TV, playing video games, volunteering, attending service events for Key Club, playing Pokemon GO, and hanging out with friends. I am a very peculiar person when I get comfortable with certain people. I am a hard worker when I am assigned to a task, so you can rely on me.

My plans for the future are undecided, but I do want to become either a civil engineer or a public speaker. Although those jobs may not involve photography or filming, I do enjoy filmmaking and taking photos in my free time. I want to broaden my experience with filmmaking and photography by joining the Youth Media Team. I also hope to learn more about mine and other communities whilst in the Youth Media Team.

My main goal at the moment is to be a Pokemon Master.

My name is Weyman Ly and I am a senior at Hiram Johnson High School. I am an obedient person. I listen to what others say and follow directions that are given to me. My hobbies are playing games with my friends, going outside hanging out with friends, and watching Youtube videos

Of how I got interested in filming was because of Youtube. I got inspired by all the content creators doing their own thing and editing it to make it more interesting to watch. It entertains me and I would like to try and pursue the life of entertainment by joining The Sac BHC Youth Media Team Summer Program. The program teaches me video editing skills that will allow me to try and inspire other people through videos.

A goal of mine is to start my own Youtube channel so I can start entertaining other people my own way.