Hello! My name is Caleb Saephan and I go to Fern Bacon Middle School, after my eighth grade year, I plan on going to West Campus. I am into computer tech and video games.

My hobbies are playing basketball and creating funny animations.
When it comes to playing basketball, I try to focus and I become determined. Whenever I create funny animations, I try my best to make it look as perfect as I can make it so that viewers would love it.

I joined this Program because my mother reccomended me into trying new things. But now, I regret not wanting to go because so far, it’s fun and I get to socialize with the others. Luckily, now that I can socialize with my team, they can now understand what I’m trying to say. But for now, I’m hoping that I can be a brighter and smarter person in the future from joining this program.

Hey, my name is Malika You and I’m an incoming senior at West Campus High School. I love to cook, watch movies, and play video games. I think that I am a fun and spontaneous person, however when there is work to be done, I’m always reliable and I use my time efficiently.

I plan on becoming a dermatologist but I have always enjoyed filmmaking and photography ever since I was young. The camera is an outlet for me to release my creativity and capture important moments. Joining the Youth Media Team, I hope to increase my photography skills and reach out to my community more. I also hope that it will teach me how to use social media as a tool to spread important information and messages.

I think that being a part of the Sac BHC Youth Media Team will be the highlight of my summer.

On June 21st, I had the opportunity to attend and film the Girls On The Rise Conference. It was really interesting to experience the conference and their activities. The conference’s theme was Self-Care. Not taking care of yourself can lead to health issues.

There were several impactful and empowering presentations about dealing with stress, why self-care is important, and other people’s own struggles dealing with health issues that was led from lack of self care. It’s amazing to see these people who struggled with health issues and eventually becoming healthier.

During the presentations, there would be mini activities that had the girls critically think and engaged. Afterwards, the conference was split into two groups where they would each go to a workshop. The workshop was fun and provided useful information. Each workshop taught the girls the effects of stress and ways to de-stress.

The participants in the first workshops had learned that treating yourself comes in different ways. Yoga, meditation, exercise, drawing, music, reading, and more are some ways to relax and treat your body. One of the presenters had said that writing out your feelings or thoughts is a way to relax and release your emotions. Then they passed notebooks around where the participants could decorate and personalize them.

The second and last workshop included treating your body by eating right. The presenters talked about nutrition being a main component of your health. Eating food affects your mood and health. Eating healthy foods makes you motivated, positive, and prevents health issues while junk food leaves you sluggish, tired, and possibly at risk to different health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure. Lots of useful information provided where the girls could apply them and take care of themselves when they are experiencing stress. After the presentation, the girls were lined up so they could make a DIY bath scrub, which was also a way to help de-stress.

Overall, this conference was an opportunity for many of the girls to learn, be aware of their health, and have fun.

Story by Jasmine Duong, Sac BHC Youth Media Team member

My name is Jasmine Duong and I’m an incoming junior at Hiram Johnson High School. My hobbies consist of studying, reading, watching YouTube videos, hanging with my friends, and filming for fun and when I feel inspired. I’m also a 16 year old without a dream. I have always lived my life being criticized and told what to do. I was planning my whole life and preparing myself to be a nurse because I loved science and medicine and because I had to.

When it came to filming, as cliche as it sounds, it makes me feel alive because I don’t have to focus on myself or the future anymore but a camera and the videos I make. I love making videos for my audience. I want it to make people laugh, but at the same time spread a meaningful message. Although, I lost my confidence as a kid, I still want to keep going and reach the goal of making an amazing film. Filming will always be my passion.

I don’t know what I’m going to film yet, but I know that it gives me a stage whether it’s big or small. My voice can be heard.

My name is Calvin Szeto, I am 16 years old, and I am currently a junior attending West Campus High School. I do have some experience with cameras and editing as I own a Sony HDR-AS20 camera and have used iMovie and Windows Movie Maker. Some of my hobbies include shoe collecting/reselling, playing basketball and badminton, and watching movies. I feel that I am an unpredictable person, it all depends on how I wake up and the weather.

My plans for the future are to graduate high school, get into a 4 year college, get my Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch), and to be an architect and maybe have my own firm. I feel that the summer program will benefit me in the future if i decide to pursue a career in the field of media/ filmmaking. I am looking forward to going to places that I have not been to before, meeting new people, and covering the events.

Finally, my favorite quote is #YaTuSabes.

-changing the world starts at home
To me, health is about more than physical wellness. It’s spiritual and emotional well-being and a sense of social belonging and purpose. These other facets of health are, in many ways, predecessors to good physical health. For people to achieve physical wellness, they must first value themselves. To develop habits that promote physical wellness requires time and effort that can only be fully applied by people who believe they are worth that commitment. That is why I am so excited to be a part of an organization like BHC that approaches improving my community’s health from all angles.

Building Healthy Communities is about promoting community engagement and youth education, improving access to healthcare and healthy foods, developing safer neighborhood environments, and fighting against the inequities that plague this area. It takes more than good doctors and big hospitals to generate health in a community.
South Sacramento is my home. There are many, like me, who have found that this city has provided them with all they’ve needed, but unfortunately, not everyone who lives here has the same opportunities available to them that I have had.

My younger brother and I went to different high schools, both in Sacramento, but had entirely different experiences. My high school had a retention rate of almost 100%, but my brother’s graduating class was nearly half of what it was when he entered high school. During the evenings, my brother and I like to go on runs to our neighborhood park. Should we have grown up just a few miles down the road, we might not feel safe running in the evenings, or even have a park in our neighborhood to run to.
Some of the smaller communities within Sacramento have significantly less than other communities, and few things contribute more to a person’s sense of self worth than does the message sent by their environment. For individuals to commit themselves to their own health, they must first know how, but then must have an environment that allows them to. This must happen at the community level. I believe that all people deserve the same opportunities to improve their own health and that neither zip code, ethnicity, nor pay grade should play a hand in determining those opportunities. I believe this to be true in all corners of the world

“To be able, AT ANY MOMENT, to sacrifice what you are for what, YOU WILL BECOME.” – Eric Thomas, was one the quotes the struck me the most because I intend to become something more. Something more then what either people, or statistics say that I’m capable of. I’m just some ordinary kid who’s not even suppose to be here to be honest, with a vision of changing these upcoming generations from corruption and chaos due to of the lack of  knowing self identity and awareness. I plan to leave a legacy behind, so generations down won’t have to go through half of the hardships I’ve manage to accomplish.

Aside from the little synopsis of what I’m about, my name is Matthew Cornelius-Germany. I’m 18 and music, sports, cooking and traveling are some of passions. I will be attending Sac City College this fall to not only enhance but to mold my talents to greatness for a successful near future.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to be apart of Sac BHC Youth Media Team. If it’s one thing that’s important it’s prospective, because a change in that leads to a change in our behavior in order to relieve us from what’s been holding us back from actually seeing one another. I’m excited for what this summer 16 will bring!

Hello my name is Mhong Thao

It has been one year and five months I have been in the Sac BHC Youth Media Team and I feel like the community is changing little by little, it feels great to know the community is changing. Working with the Sac BHC Youth Media Team is the best opportunity I ever got.

There is a project that I’m going to start working on, the project is how Hmong youth can preserve their own language and culture while trying to fit into the American style and customs. Most kids forget their culture because they have to learn about the American ways. There are reasons why Hmong kids don’t want to learn about their culture and language.

When they see or hear a Hmong student that is a second language learner the student tend to make fun of, that kid that is a second language learner is just trying to go to school and learn just like the rest of the students are in school. This happens a lot to Hmong kids, sometime it’s other ethnicity that make fun of them, but it’s not just the other ethnicities that do it, it’s their own kind that laugh at them too. When the second languages learner gets make fun of, they get really mad and their parents tell them it will be okay. Those kids will try to be like other Hmong kids that know a little about their language. It motivates them more to work harder one day, to be better or the same. But once they work harder on learning English. It’s either they forget their language or their culture. They don’t practice their culture and language, it’s either they want to make friend or they just don’t want to be made fun of.

Stay tune for more about this project from your boy Mhong from Sac BHC Youth Media Team.

Hi My Name Is Mario Daniel,

I’m 20 years old, I am from Sacramento, CA and I’m apart of Sac BHC Youth Media Team, I am excited to learn new things that are going to help me during my training process to get to a higher level to expose myself about who I am and what I need to do throughout my life to teach myself ways to achieve my goals and make it a reality.

I am currently enrolled In Consumes River Collage learning Computer Science as my major, my short term goal is to gain experience from the Sac BHC Youth Media Team to learn how to help the youth better themselves in the long run by using social media and media in general.I used to be in a swim team and played baseball for the little league junior giants. In the community there are not much bike routes for bikers there are some who don’t feel safe riding their bikes at night because strange things happen when it gets dark. I hope that in a near future we should be able to have safer streets for bike riders and in general for the community.

I would like to give back to the community by helping out the youth grow into the basic necessity in life. I would help them with different opportunities and a mindset to reach a goal to maintain and to go for something higher a more greater prize and to pursue a better future. Hope to see you in the future in a BHC event.

On July 30th to 31st, my supervisor, coworker, and I attended the CA Nonprofit Tech Summit hosted by Aspiration. The event took place at the National Chavez Center in Keene, CA. About twenty-five people from different organizations throughout all of California attended this event. Everyone at this event dealt with social justice and technology and allowed us to learn from one another.

The event started at 9 AM and ended at 4 PM for both days. The event comprised of many workshops in getting to know what we wanted to learn, problems that we needed to overcome, and solutions to these problems. During these workshops, there would be different participants that facilitate an event. From these workshops, I learned about different technology tools. One of the main things I have learned about is open source technology and several of the software that are good to use for security reasons. I also learned about batch file operations on Macs, that allows repetitive tasks to be performed at a fraction of a time. I also learned about the costs and effects of having an internal or external storage.

Overall, the event was very informative. It gave me a lot of perspective of someone that works for social justice and the security practices that are involved. Furthermore, this was also informative for me on a personal level because I dab in different aspects of technology and will be useful in my future projects.