INFORM teens work with CMU college writing mentors to inform themselves and others
about issues that affect their lives. In 8 to 12 week projects they frame issues,
discuss them with invited community supporters, and through their essays, interviews,
surveys and stories, use writing to give voice to an informed teen perspective.
Their published newsleter is presented at a public community conversation in which
they take the lead in bringing adults - community leaders, neighbors, parents,
and university students and faculty - to the table and into a discussion about
actions.
Newsletters, some of which are excerpted below, discuss the volatile issues of risk and stress as well as public policy, schools, and careers. Topics included:
CMU mentors work as collaborative planning partners, who in planning groups and at the keyboard, engage critical thinking and reflective, audience-based problem solving. In this intercultural conversation, both mentors and teens learn to build a productive working relationship.
From the Backfiles of INFORM: Excerpts from Newsletters
Risk & Respect: LISTEN UP (Spring, 1993)
Gangs Think They Run the Neighborhood
From a Female's Point of View
A Usual Day in Wilkensburg
Gaining Mutual Respect Through Evaluations
Student-Teacher Respect Checklist
Street Life: Dealing with Violence and Risk in Our Community (Fall 1993)
Run Brotha Run
The Friend in Danger
Maybe the Reason Why...
A Note on Mentoring
Until it Happens to You: An Interview with Lorraine Higgins
Mission Possible
Teens' Stress and Survival: A Report on the Risk and Stress of Growing Up in Pittsburgh's Inner City (Spring, 1995)
Front Page
Shana and Mrs. Taylor: When Stress Comes to School
Levels of Shana's Mind
Negative Plus a Negative = A Positive
Curfew Policy
The Story-Behind-The-Story
Bad Experiences After Hours
The Community Literacy Center's Statement